This DMTC collaboration with Planet Innovation (PI) is developing mobile, high precision diagnostic tests to enable medical professionals to rapidly identify and treat life threatening diseases.
Considerable progress has been made on the first development phase of this project, involving the development of a field deployable Point-Of-Care diagnostic testing system that will detect and differentiate multiple infectious disease agents within a single test cartridge.
The project addresses the specific need to diagnose military and civilian personnel infected with security sensitive biological agents. Alongside PI, industry partner Anteo Technologies and research partner Deakin University have also contributed to this project.
Anteo has worked to optimise the infectious disease test chemistry in order to further improve test sensitivity and Deakin has produced and tested a novel, thread-based membrane which acts as the support material for the infectious disease tests.
PI has successfully integrated the test chemistry and test membrane, carrying out functional performance analysis and optimising of the entire test system using a camera-based reader technology to accurately assess test results. PI have also generated a number of concepts for panel cartridges which would allow multiple, simultaneous tests to be run from a single sample input.
The project is also developing an in-country supply chain of capable Australian-based SMEs to manufacture components that historically have only been sourced from overseas. In this way, the project is not only providing an important national health security capability but also creating new market and export opportunities for Australian industry.