Affordable and accurate barcode-style COVID-19 test could help open up workplaces by reassuring employers and staff
Media Release Saturday 19th December 2020
A Scottish company is set to offer a lifeline to businesses with the launch of its new cost-effective COVID-19 testing service. BioClavis, set up in 2017 as a spin-out of California-based life science firm, BioSpyder Technologies Inc., is based at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital campus in Glasgow.
The BioClavis test, developed in collaboration with BioSpyder, detects the virus using an innovative biological barcoding technique called TempO-SPan.
Joel McComb, CEO and founder of both companies, said:
“With a minor modification to our core TempO-Seq technology, we’re able to incorporate biological barcodes to track individual patient samples and their results at scale for COVID-19 and other respiratory infections.
This enables a high volume of patient results to be analysed by a highly accurate and low-cost automated process.”
Using this method, BioClavis says it will have the capabilities to process 100,000 samples a day by the end of January. Despite recent announcements about mass testing programmes, limited national testing capacity doesn’t allow for the routine screening necessary to enable workplaces to return to more normal ways of operating.
Working from home brings its own challenges. In recent surveys employees have expressed dissatisfaction over the lack of face-to-face contact and communication during the pandemic, as well a feeling of real community, all of which contribute to a sense of well-being.
According to studies, more than half of remote staff are now suffering from ‘home fatigue’, and the inability to go to the workplace is causing a drop in productivity (see Notes to Editors).
Although vaccines are now starting to be rolled out, widespread access and immunity will take time to establish. The tests offered by BioClavis will address this gap.
Through March 2021, the company asserts it will be in a position to scale from 100,000 tests per day to over one million, which no other single clinical lab can offer. These tests will be available at a price point as low as £30 per sample to companies and organisations prepared to subscribe to the routine service before the end of January. To assist ongoing public health needs, pricing for excess capacity will be offered to the UK government efforts at further discounted prices.
Harper VanSteenhouse, head of the Glasgow-based firm said:
“Our testing capabilities will make large scale, accurate and inexpensive screening routinely and widely available, helping to open up our society and the economy. This will be particularly relevant in the new year, as people across the UK and Europe look forward to relaxation of restrictions on movement and working.
Our service will be invaluable when it comes to lowering the risks to employees in business sectors such as construction, food, oil and gas and retail, where employees must be present to be effective, and broaden the safe return to work."
Visit bioclavis.co.uk/covid for more information or to request a subscription.
ENDS
Issued by Jill Brown Media on behalf of BioClavis.
For more information:
Phone Jill Brown, 07786 927203 or Jan Patience, 07802 427207
Notes to Editors:
Work Studies
Resilience First report
Aternity Global Trends in Remote Work Productivity Report
https://info.aternity.com/the-covid-19-remote-work-productivity-tracker.html
About BioClavis Ltd.
BioClavis is a Glasgow-based personalised diagnostics spin-out of BioSpyder Technologies developing services based on TempO-Seq transcriptomic/genomic technology to GLP and ISO15189 quality standards. They leverage the proprietary technology, capable of efficiently analysing large cohorts with customisable biomarker panels of tens to thousands of genes, quickly and inexpensively. Thereby BioClavis enables the full promise and clinical utility of ‘omic testing to deliver cost-effective care for individual patients in coordination with and context of the practical realities in today’s healthcare systems. More information is available at www.bioclavis.co.uk/
About BioSpyder Technologies, Inc.
BioSpyder Technologies is based in Carlsbad, CA. and is a privately held company funded by government grants, contracts and sales revenue. BioSpyder is the developer of TempO-Seq®. The company markets kits and services which include optional custom content and/or attenuation of any set of genes, any variant or mutation, and any species. BioSpyder Technologies was founded by veteran molecular biology executives Joel McComb, Joanne Yeakley, Ph.D., and Bruce Seligmann, Ph.D., in 2011. More information about BioSpyder Technologies Inc. is available at www.biospyder.com/tempospan