Vivione Biosciences collaboration with Kirkegaard & Perry Laboratories (KPL) is expected to allow Vivione to accelerate commercialization of the detection kits used in Vivione's RAPID-B food-borne pathogen detection platform. The detection kits will be powered by KPL's well-characterized BacTrace® affinity-purified primary antibodies. Vivione and KPL plan immediate initiation of manufacturing and commercialization of the detection kits, with the first commercial detection kit (E. coli O157:H7) already submitted for independent certification by the Association of Analytical Communities.

Vivione's RAPID-B system combines flow cytometry with proprietary reagents (contained in detection kits that are designed to target a particular pathogen) and has the potential to provide food pathogen detection down to a single cell in as little as seven hours (including sample preparation) versus up to 48 hours for competing culture-based methods. The resulting system offers much higher performance compared to other rapid diagnostic systems currently on the market. Unlike culture-based methods, the RAPID-B system does not require isolation of bacteria and works with background interference from complex matrices like food.

The RAPID-B system is easy to operate by lab personnel and does not require frequent calibration like most flow cytometer systems, making the RAPID-B system more capable of being used in real manufacturing environments. Bacteria detection, data collection, and analysis are seamless with results being provided after only 60 seconds in the system (which does not include sample preparation).

'Vivione collaborated with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR) over the past six years to accomplish the development and testing of the RAPID-B system,' said Kevin Kuykendall, Chief Executive Officer of Vivione. 'The strategic relationship with KPL enables us to immediately expand our product offerings and get to market much faster by leveraging their leadership expertise in antibody-based reagent production.'

For more than 20 years, KPL has been a well-recognized leader in high specificity, polyclonal, affinity-purified antibodies for food-borne pathogen detection. Although most interest today lies in KPL's offering of antibodies for Salmonella, STECs, E. coli O157:H7, Listeria, and Campylobacter, KPL has a continuous stream of new products in development to detect infectious disease and emerging food-borne pathogens that Vivione will be able to leverage going forward.