BD Diagnostics and personalized healthcare provider Lab21 have collaborated to develop a molecular diagnostic assay to detect the life-threatening aspergillus fungus using a new fully automated BD MAX Molecular Testing System.
Combined with open capability, full automation and standardized workflow, BD MAX System will enable laboratories to consolidate and standardize their molecular tests to build programs that meet both their current and future clinical needs.
Lab21 CEO Graham Mullis said the potential to detect Aspergillus in blood using real-time polymerase chain reaction is a topic of great interest to clinicians since it offers faster, more sensitive and more accurate diagnostic and screening strategies for the early and definitive detection of aspergillosis.
BD Diagnostics – Diagnostic Systems president Tom Polen said the collaboration is designed to add an innovative molecular test to the BD MAX System’s growing test menu that will empower clinicians and laboratory professionals with rapid, accurate information on which to base important treatment decisions.
"By collaborating with best-in-class in vitro diagnostics developers such as Lab21, our goal is to make the BD MAX System an indispensible tool in clinical laboratories by providing them with an ever-expanding test menu on a fully automated platform," Polen said.
According to Polen, BD plans to bring new assays to the BD MAX System in a broad range of disease categories.