BioInnovation Solutions SA  has developed and tested, with the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID),  a sequence-based platform for rapid detection and surveillance of filoviruses such as Ebola and Marburg.

The timely study, carried out under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), will be published in the prestigious journal PLOS one. USAMRIID’s success using the Bioinnovation multiplex platform highlights the importance of biosurveillance as an early warning system, not only to prevent outbreaks such as the ongoing Ebola outbreak in West Africa, but also to provide an improved response capacity. This study will proceed further to develop sequence-based detection technologies to discover new host biomarkers and biothreats at preclinical levels. BioInnovation's DxSeq™ is integrated with the Illumina MIseq next-generation sequencing system (NGS) was used to sequence filoviruses, including Ebola, Reston and Marburg, obtained from endemic areas.  The combination of BioInnovation’s platform agnostic technology with any next-generation sequencing platform (including systems from Ion Torrent and Illumina) enables much faster and earlier detection of viral and bacterial pathogens and the discovery of new, previously unidentified strains.

“We are pleased with the success of this study, especially in light of the current Ebola outbreak and the declaration of a Global Emergency by the WHO,” said Pat Beyer, CEO of BioInnovation Solutions.  “It is our hope that this technology can be deployed to the endemic areas as an early warning system for future outbreaks.”

Bioinnovation's DxSeq™ platform offers new applications in health services through rapid multiplex identification of pathogens and drug resistance genes, providing personalized diagnosis for infectious diseases. BioInnovation’s high throughput pathogen detection system performs rapid and highly sensitive detection of a wide variety of biomarkers using just a common assay protocol.