Facility will be used for R&D on the firm’s M-DNA™ technology, which is touted to obviate target and signal amplification used in current tests.
Adnavance Technologies has opened a 2,400 sq. ft. laboratory in San Diego. The space will be used for R&D of its M-DNA™ (metalized-DNA) platform on which the company is developing molecular diagnostics.
Adnavance believes that the M-DNA technology could eliminate the need for target and/or signal amplification that standard molecular diagnostics require. The platform is based on the conducting properties of hybridized DNA. Under strict reaction conditions, certain metal ions can enter the central core of hybridized DNA and displace the hydrogen bonds. This forms the equivalent of a metal wire in the center of the DNA, making it highly conductive.
Adnavance uses a microarray of 10-micron electrodes to detect the M-DNA through the differential change in conductivity between hybridized and metalized DNA. This change in conductivity is so large that it may obviate the need for target amplification used in current molecular-based tests, the firm explains.
The company is initially developing molecular diagnostic tests using M-DNA™ for the U.S. market. It believes its technology will open the market to approximately 30,000 new customers who are not licensed to perform molecular diagnostic tests.
Due to cost involved with target-amplification devices, Adnavance says that only about 10% of hospital laboratories and 35% of independent laboratories in the U.S. perform molecular diagnostic testing. The M-DNA technology will offer advantages over existing DNA testing methods, including ease of use, time to result, and lower cost, according to the the company.
“Our medical device platform is being engineered and developed at the Vancouver, BC, facility, while the DNA chemistry to run on that platform will be developed in San Diego,” says Randy White, CEO.
Under the three-year lease, Adnavance can at any time during this period exercise a no-penalty option to expand by 50% into another suitable facility managed by Asset Management Group.
