Development of a device for on-farm mastitis testing

生物切线正在为动物健康设计下一代分子诊断。我们的等温扩增技术检测特定疾病的特定遗传标记，与传统的基因检测技术不同，这种技术可以简单地自动化，从而促进对传染病的临床/农场诊断测试。平台技术的适应性允许快速开发针对新疾病目标的诊断分析，从而快速扩展我们的诊断产品组合。这得益于我们专有的诊断目标识别和合成生物学设计流程，这些流程由创新的生物信息学和机器学习方法提供支持。我们正在开发一种新型产品，通过检测导致乳腺炎的最常见细菌的特定基因序列，来识别乳腺炎（乳房炎症）的病因。乳腺炎是全球奶牛最昂贵的疾病，并降低了乳制品行业的可持续性。由于需要仅根据症状对动物进行治疗，农场和兽医实践中缺乏快速和可靠的诊断，导致畜牧业过度使用抗生素。与目前的诊断方法相比，我们的解决方案AmpliSpec(tm) VET乳腺炎将促进兽医和农民更有效和及时的补救干预，而目前的诊断方法需要等待数天才能在中央诊断实验室分析牛奶样本。它将确保抗生素仅在绝对必要时使用，并选择最合适的抗生素以获得最佳结果。随着提供蛋白质的乳制品需求的增加，这一点至关重要。更有效地治疗乳腺炎将提高生产效率，增强可持续性，改善福利标准，同时支持到2050年实现净零排放的努力。创新贷款将使我们能够与一家领先的英国医疗设备设计公司合作超过12个月，将我们的产品概念通过我们的目标客户（兽医和农民）评估的最终设备原型，并准备生产。除了乳腺炎，该产品在我们的等温扩增技术的灵活性支持下，将适用于不同的兽医疾病（例如牛呼吸道疾病和小牛腹泻），并应用于人类医学诊断和环境测试。我们已经在与全球动物卫生参与者讨论探索未来的应用，并正在进行可行性试验，以解决畜牧部门未满足的关键需求。

Biotangents are designing the next generation of molecular diagnostics for animal health. Our isothermal amplification technology detects specific genetic markers of a particular disease in a way that, unlike traditional gene detection technologies, can be automated in a simple manner to facilitate in-clinic/on-farm diagnostic testing for infectious diseases. The adaptability of the platform technology allows the rapid development of diagnostic assays for new disease targets to rapidly expand our diagnostic product portfolio. This is aided by our proprietary diagnostic target identification and synthetic biology design processes that are powered by innovative bioinformatics and machine learning approaches.We are developing a new class of product for identifying the causes of mastitis (inflammation of the udder) on the farm, through the detection of genetic sequences specific to the most common bacteria that cause the disease. Mastitis is the most costly disease of dairy cattle globally and reduces the sustainability of the dairy industry. The lack of rapid and reliable diagnostics on the farm and in the veterinary practice contributes to the overuse of antibiotics in livestock farming due to the need to treat animals based on symptoms alone.Our solution, AmpliSpec(tm) VET Mastitis, will facilitate more effective and timely remedial intervention by vets and farmers than current diagnostics methods, which require a multi-day wait for milk samples to be analysed in a central diagnostic laboratory. It will ensure that antibiotics are only utilised when absolutely necessary and the most appropriate antibiotic is selected for the best outcome. This is critical as the demand for dairy products to provide protein increases. More effective treatment of mastitis will result in more efficient production and enhanced sustainability as well as improved welfare standards while supporting the drive towards net zero emissions by 2050.An Innovation Loan will allow us to work with a leading UK medical device design company over 12 months to take our product concept through to a final device prototype evaluated by our target customers (vets and farmers) and ready for manufacture. Beyond mastitis, the product, supported by the flexibility of our isothermal amplification technology, will be adapted for different veterinary diseases (e.g. bovine respiratory disease and calf scour) and has applications in human medical diagnostics and environmental testing. We are already in discussion with global animal health players exploring future applications and are progressing towards a feasibility trial for a solution to overcome a key unmet need within the livestock sector.