Delays in diagnostic testing prevent timely and effective treatment, increase the time lost to illness and escalate the spread of disease.
As a result, these delays have a range of flow-on effects leading to increased individual sickness, overburdened family members and carers, less productive workplaces, overloaded healthcare systems and significant economic impacts on local communities, states and countries. BioCifer rapid diagnostic testing is reducing this burden by facilitating testing from sample to result, in just 20 to 40minutes.
COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) detection
In 2020, BioCifer focused on COVID-Cifer RNA-XT – a RNA extraction kit for fast, simple and safe COVID-19 sample processing. In response to the acute global need for a diagnostic tool to address the shortcomings and limitations in existing laboratory-based testing, BioCifer developed a compelling alternative to time-consuming, labour intensive and laboratory-based procedures. The COVID-Cifer RNA-XT kit contains a first-in-class sample processing reagent, designed to extract nucleic acids with minimal processing while also rapidly inactivating pathogens. The benefit is a rapid, simple and accurate test that can be performed at the point of sample collection.
Malaria (Plasmodium Falciparum) detection
Malaria is a parasitic infection that can cause high fever, respiratory distress, kidney failure and in severe cases, death. The WHO estimates that in 2018 there were 228 million new cases of malaria resulting in 405,000 deaths. The majority of cases (65%) occur in children under 15 years old.
Antimicrobial resistance detection
Diagnostic tests are a critical component in the fight against antimicrobial resistance, which has emerged as a serious global health threat. BioCifer has developed a test kit, using a simple lateral flow-based detection system, to enable the rapid detection of genetic markers for anti-microbial resistance.
Dengue Virus detection
Dengue, one of the Flaviviruses genus of viruses, is spread primarily through ticks and mosquitoes. Current focus is on Dengue virus (DENV) which is non-fatal, but can cause severe and long-lasting symptoms in humans. Current estimates indicate that as many as 390 million infections occur each year.