News
06-Apr-2009 - LGC licenses first T5000
Biosensor System in Europe - and announces development agreement
with Abbott
LGC announces plans to develop new applications for the
Ibis T5000 Biosensor System in Europe
LGC, the international
science-based service company, has concluded an agreement with
Abbott, a global healthcare company,
to be the first diagnostics service provider in Europe to license
the Ibis T5000 Biosensor System, for use in the rapid
identification and characterisation of genomic material from
microorganisms.
Under the terms of the
agreement, LGC and Abbott will jointly identify and develop
commercial diagnostic applications for the T5000 Biosensor System,
which is currently used for research purposes. LGC will have an
exclusive license to develop non-clinical applications in the UK
and a non-exclusive license to develop clinical and food testing
applications.
The T5000 Biosensor System
is an automated platform for the rapid identification and
characterisation of microorganisms. The platform technology for the
system is based on a cutting-edge combination of PCR and high
performance mass spectrometry. In combination with Abbott’s bespoke
database of thousands of microorganisms, the Ibis T5000 is capable
of identifying virtually all bacteria, viruses and fungi, and can
provide information about drug resistance, virulence and strain
type of these pathogens.
Current applications for the
Ibis T5000 Biosensor System include epidemiologic surveillance,
monitoring of pandemic diseases, identification of emerging or
previously unknown pathogens, forensic characterization of human
samples, identification of sources of hospital-associated
infections, and, in the future, human infectious disease
diagnostics. Abbott acquired Ibis Biosciences, Inc. from Isis
Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in January 2009.
An LGC microbial
identification diagnostics service built around the T5000 Biosensor
System is planned. The T5000 Biosensor System has already been
deployed and endorsed by a number of US agencies involved in
pathogen and infection control.
Dr Paul Debenham, Director of Innovation
and Development at LGC, commented: “LGC is delighted to be
working closely with Abbott to offer services built on this
technology. LGC already offers a wide spectrum of analytical
diagnostics services and we are looking forward to identifying
possible new application areas for this exciting new
platform”.
Notes to
editors: