Device can get a read-out from 'virtually any tissue sample'

While there are currently numerous point-of-care devices at various stages of development, Newcastle-based QuantuMDx (QMDx) says it can perform several preparation steps on the same platform.

These include initial sample preparation, DNA extraction, amplification of target DNA stretches using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and ultimately disease detection using DNA sequencing.

Crucially, it is one of the first such handheld devices able to carry out true DNA sequencing for multiple data points, as opposed to inference-based methods for single data points or single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).

QMDx will focus on testing its device for tuberculosis (TB), sexually transmitted diseases and cardiovascular disease.

‘The reason why I invented this technology is to perform infectious-disease resistance sequencing in the field, at the patient’s side. It’s a problem that’s not received enough press in my opinion,’ Jonathan O’Halloran, QMDx’s chief scientific officer, told The Engineer.

O’Halloran spent two years in the Khayelitsha township near Cape Town in South Africa, where he got the inspiration to develop the technology, before going on to co-found the company.