Newswise — Columbia University Science & Technology Ventures announced that it has licensed a pathogen detection technology called MassTag PCR to Vimta Labs to develop clinical diagnostics for patients in India.
Invented by Professor W. Ian Lipkin's team at the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and a team led by Professor Jingyue Ju in the Chemical Engineering department at Columbia's Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, MassTag PCR can quickly and inexpensively detect up to 30 pathogens from individual microbial and viral gene sequences.
MassTags are small chemical compounds of different molecular weight that are added to nucleotide primer sequences by a ultraviolet (UV) photocleaver linker. Panels of these MassTag-labeled primers designed to bind to genes of viruses, bacteria and fungi, are then used in a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) reaction to amplify sequences of infectious agents present in clinical or environmental samples. Following UV cleavage and mass spectrometry, the identity of the agent(s) is revealed by the presence of its cognate tags.
Current methods of diagnosis such as fluorescence reporter systems and hybridization enzyme systems are limited in their ability to identify fewer than 10 possible agents in a single assay. The multiplex approach of MassTag PCR allows for the rapid identification and discrimination of numerous pathogens in a single test.
Vimta Labs, located in Hyderabad, India, plans to use the MassTag PCR technique to develop specific clinical diagnostic panels that can readily test for the responsible agents that result in diseases such as encephalitis, respiratory diseases, viral hemorrhagic fever, ticks and bacterial inflammation.
"Multiplex assays with MassTag PCR have great potential for providing lower cost diagnostic services to the Indian population where multiple infections are prevalent," said Dr. Mahanandeeshwar Gattu, Vice President for Research & Development at Vimta Labs. "We are very pleased to have been able to collaborate with Columbia University in brining this technology to the Indian market," said Dr. Vasireddi, Chairman and Managing Director, Vimta Labs, India.
"We are delighted that this diagnostic technology will be moving to the clinical laboratories where it can both reduce morbidity and health care costs by providing timely and accurate information to health care professionals," said Dr. Lipkin.
"We are very excited to see MassTag PCR developed into a clinical decision-making tool," said Ron Katz, the technology licensing officer at Science & Technology Ventures. "With Vimta, we hope to make this another successful example of Columbia technology being us
About Columbia University Science & Technology VenturesA leading academic and research university, Columbia University continually seeks to advance the frontiers of knowledge and to foster a campus community deeply engaged in understanding and addressing the complex global issues of our time. Columbia University's technology transfer office, Science & Technology Ventures (STV), serves as a bridge between Columbia's researchers and the business community. STV's core objective is to facilitate the transfer of inventions from academic research to outside organizations for the benefit of society on a local, national and global basis. As such, STV's primary mission is to identify, evaluate, protect, and license or form companies based on Columbia's intellectual property. STV at Columbia University is considered one of the leading technology transfer offices in the world, with more than 300 invention disclosures from faculty, 70 license deals and 12 new start-ups each year. For more information on STV, please visit www.stv.columbia.edu.
About Vimta Labs LimitedVimta Labs is India's leading contract research and testing organization. Established in 1984 VIMTA has an envious track record of serving several market leaders across the globe. VIMTA has a large team of professionals and scientists in various disciplines such as Chemistry, Pharmacy, Medicine, Microbiology, Molecular biology and Informatics.
VIMTA has available a world class facility with state-of-the-art instrumentation in all areas of biotechnology from GC-MS and MALDI TOF/TOF to high throughput DNA sequencing and microarray technologies and fully equipped pre-clinical research facilities. The R&D lab at Vimta is recognised by DSIR, India as a Research facility.
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