Second US patent for Australian immunoassay technology

Adelaide biotechnology company TGR BioSciences has received its second US patent in six months, covering key aspects of the company’s CaptSure immunoassay technology. The technology is said to accelerate and simplify immunoassay procedures, making it applicable to many areas of biology, including life sciences, clinical diagnostics and plant disease detection.

US Patent 9,086,407, granted to TGR on 21 July 2015, gave the company exclusive rights to license CaptSure to researchers and manufacturers around the world. US Patent 9,261,500, granted on 16 February, covers additional aspects of CaptSure products including ELISA and bead-based offerings.

“This patent allows us to expand our technology to include other assay formats, including microfluidics products,” explained TGR Chief Scientific Officer Dr Antony Sheehan.

“We can now broaden our partnerships with other bio-manufacturing companies and laboratories to expand the use of this technology.”

In comparison to conventional assays, which usually involve three separate incubations over 2–3 days or more, CaptSure only requires a single incubation and wash step. This is made possible by incubating the sample with both ‘capture’ and ‘detector’ antibodies at the same time.

Dr Sheehan said TGR’s innovative technology enables not only faster, easier and more versatile assays, but also reduces manufacturing costs by simplifying test development as well as reducing the amount of core reagents required.

“These advantages translate to a very high-value technology for TGR and increased benefits for the industry,” he said.

“The benefits of faster, easier and lower cost assays can be delivered to a variety of market segments, including clinical diagnostics, drug development and agriculture.”