Select Vaccines and Diagnostics CRC aim for better assays

Select Vaccines (ASX: SLT) will collaborate with the CRC for Diagnostics (CDx) to develop a diagnostic assay for Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), using Select's adhesive peptide technology and the CDx's synthetic EBV peptides.

Select's adhesive peptide technology will be used to develop EBV peptides that enable the target antigen to adhere more tightly to the assay plates -- a process critical to the performance of the assay. But more importantly, the development of enhanced EBV diagnostics using the adhesive peptides will enable the partners to develop a platform technology that can be applied to similar diagnostic assays.

Select's managing director Martin Soust said proof of concept for the adhesive peptides would create a substantial opportunity for the improvement and development of a large number of diagnostic assays.

"It has the potential to dramatically improve the performance of many existing assays and could also enable new assays to be developed for particularly problematic disease targets," Soust said in a statement.

Results are expected from the R&D collaboration by April 2005. Novel IP developed as a result of the collaboration will be jointly owned by Select and the CDx and any revenues resulting from commercialisation of an EBV test will be split between the parties, while Select will own non-EBV IP rights.