Enigma gets funding for flu diagnostics

Development grant

Enigma Diagnostics Ltd, a spin-out from the UK’s defence technology laboratory, has been awarded €3 million from Framework Programme 7 to develop and validate a fully automated, low-cost system that can diagnose flu infections rapidly.

The money is awarded to the Ranger consortium, which is coordinated by Enigma, and includes Applied Biosystems, Sagentia, Tico Europe, Bruhn Newtech Group, Bioplastics BV and PERA, which will contribute to the development of the instrument and assays. The consortium also includes the Health Protection Agency, the UK’s national reference laboratory for influenza diagnostics, and the Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health, where the system will be evaluated and validated.

The system will be based on Enigma’s fully automated technology, which integrates sample preparation with real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect viral RNA. The simple-to-use, portable system will provide rapid results direct to the user.

By providing laboratory standard, high specificity and sensitivity, PCR results in a decentralised setting, the system will speed up the diagnosis of early stage viral infections and the surveillance of disease outbreaks.

Enigma is also separately developing real-time PCR-based diagnostics systems targeting chlamydia, gonorrhoea and other sexually transmitted infections.

John McKinley, Chairman of Enigma, said, “The award of this grant and the strength of our consortium partners is a great endorsement of Enigma’s technology. It is also a strategically important milestone for the company as it demonstrates the utility of real time PCR in an extremely challenging area of diagnosis. We are confident we will be able to deliver a system that rapidly and simply delivers laboratory quality results at the point of care.”

Enigma has an exclusive licence from the Defence Science Technology Laboratory to a portfolio of patents which represent over 15 years of UK Ministry of Defence funded research.