New DNA technology could spell precise GMO detection

At a time when the precise detection of GMOs in food products has been an issue for the Federal government's analytical laboratories, Sydney company BTF Decisive Microbiology has launched bioparticle dispensing technology that it claimed would provide precision in quantitative DNA analysis.

BTF's CEO, Mark Gauci, said DNA analysis was revolutionized by PCR (polymerase chain reaction), but there had never been a reliable way to make this technology quantitative.

Without quantification, measurements were unreliable and tests of limited value, he said.

"The Federal government has set the standard that if there is more than one per cent of GMO in a food product it must be labelled as such," Gauci said.

"Testing has to be very precise and one of the issues they have at the moment is that their testing isn't precise enough to be able to determine it accurately at that level."

"It's very difficult to accurately assess how much GMO is in food, and even though the government has set levels its difficult to determine an accurate level with any certainty.

"An Australian reference laboratory approached us and said: 'You've got this technology, and we need it now because we have significant issues we are dealing with'.

"The network of laboratories around the world have the same issues."

Currently, laboratories have a sample of DNA with which to standardise their PCR tests, but the methods used to measure the sample are known to vary.

"We aim to provide them (laboratories) with a sample that has a specific number of cells and we know how many bits of DNA are in each cell," Gauci said.

"We have patented the technology to dispense the cells that contain precise numbers of copies of DNA."

Besides detecting GMOs in food and agri-products, the technology has implications for pharmaceuticals, clinical diagnostics of infectious diseases, life sciences researches, industrial testing and genomics where the precise level of DNA in a sample is critical.

"Our business is about providing a precise numbers of what we call bioparticles in a usable form," Gauci said.

The technology is in a kit format and enables accurate calibration of DNA measurements either from sample to sample, lab to lab or country to country.

BTF's range of products includes methods for detecting precise numbers of Cryptosporidium and Giardia.

"We have the first approval of any precision biological reference material in the world," Gauci said. "It's in a very small market right now but the bigger markets are getting their heads around where we are going with this."