Pictured l-r: Nir Grossman, ORNL Director Jeff Wadsworth, Nano Nexus Managing Director Joy Fisher, Christopher Johnson.
Team: Aptinostics
Team Members: Nir Grossman, Nikolay Zhukovsky, Christopher Johnson
School: Imperial College, London
Faculty Advisor: Tony Cass, Deputy Director and Research Director
Product or Service: A point-of-care diagnostic test for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and available for home use. The diagnostic test is built upon innovatively designed bionanoparticles consisting of engineered nucleic acids that sense the STI pathogens and colloidal magnetic nanoparticles that 'concentrate' dilute analytes onto a sensor surface, thus dramatically increasing the sensitivity of the device.
Current diagnostic tools for STIs are based either on the nucleic acid amplification technique (NAAT), which is fundamentally lab-based, or based on low sensitivity (<75% of the NAAT gold standard) POC immunoassays. By combining the sensing capabilities of engineered nucleic acids and the concentrating power of magnetic nanoparticles, Aptinostics is bringing high specificity and selectivity out of the lab and into the over-the-counter point-of-care STI diagnostics market, enabling superior detection of STI pathogens by non-professional users.
Currently, the global STI diagnostic market is dominated by a small number of large contenders specializing in clinic-based diagnostics. In the home-based diagnostic sector, several small companies offer poor performance, multi-step, non-user-friendly immunoassay kits. Neither the clinic- or home-based kits offer multiplex STI detection. Aptinostics has taken advantage of recent advances in nanotechnology to bring laboratory standard performance to home users, producing a quick, easy to use, single-step diagnostic device that simultaneously detects multiple pathogens for Chlamydia and Gonorrhea, the most widespread, curable STIs.
Aptinostics’ product is aimed at the unmet need for a point of care test to address the growing global STI epidemic. The World Health Organization estimates that 340 million new cases of curable STIs occur each year. The team believes that the substantial changes in social norms and sexual behavior over the past decade, along with the social stigma of STIs have generated a significant demand for its product.
The initial target market for the team’s product is everyday citizens who put off regular visits to clinics because of their inconvenient and indiscreet nature. The team will also seek to commercialize its product among health organizations that operate national and international STI screening projects. The product’s modular and multiplexing nature will be a great economic value to large-scale screening projects.
The Aptinostics team recently participated in the Nano I2P® Competition at Nano Nexus 2007, a nanotechnology conference hosted by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, on April 3, 2007. The conference brought together universities, entrepreneurs, and leaders of the nanotechnology industry in an effort to move nanotechnology out of research organizations and into the marketplace.
“The competition is a very good atmosphere for innovation,” said Dr. Christopher Johnson, a student at Imperial College, London. “It’s very exciting for us to be here competing globally, and to get an insight into the U.S. competition.”