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Detect-Ready
Molecular Detection Inc.
Wayne, PA
The Detect-Ready assay, the first product from Molecular Detection Inc. (MDI), is a DNA-probe screening test designed to detect MRSA. ADVANCE spoke with company CEO Todd Wallach about this new assay.
ADVANCE: Why was this test created?
Todd Wallach: We created the first Detect-Ready test, which is a ready-to-use rapid and accurate detection DNA-probe screening test for MRSA, because MRSA is a significant and growing problem in hospitals--and early and rapid screening can alleviate many of the serious health and financial burdens MRSA infections impose on hospitals.
An increasing number of people are MRSA carriers, and in the patient hospital setting, it is easy for MRSA to be spread by personnel and procedures, causing serious, potentially fatal systemic infections. Our technology transforms real-time PCR for MRSA detection from what is essentially a research tool into an off-the-shelf, easy-to-use commercial product hospitals can use for MRSA screening, day-in and day-out. Unlike other testing products requiring special handling, Detect-Ready kits are off-the-shelf, room temperature-stabilized and require no refrigeration. MDI's proprietary technology produces highly accurate results, available in less than 3 hours.
A: How does it work?
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| DETECT READY: Molecular Detection Inc. developed this DNA-probe screening test designed to detect MRSA. ADVANCE thanks Molecular Detection Inc. |
TW: To screen for MRSA with the Detect-Ready assay, healthcare professionals collect samples from potential MRSA carriers with nasal swabs, which are sent to the laboratory without the need for any transport medium. In the clinical laboratory, the specimen-containing swab is placed in a Detect-Ready preparation tube that comes preloaded with sample preparation buffer, for concentrating and lysing the sample to extract the DNA.
A portion of the extracted DNA from the sample is then added to a Detect-Ready reaction tube, which contains all the reagents required to process it, including primers and probes. The application is then run on a real-time PCR instrument (Detect-Ready kits are compatible with multiple rt-PCR platforms currently found in clinical laboratories, including the Roche LightCycler, Qiagen Rotor-Gene and Cepheid SmartCycler), and Detect-Ready proprietary software interprets the data and reports results.
A: How will it help patients?
TW: The affordable, easy-to-use Detect-Ready MRSA assay facilitates more widespread screening of patients who are admitted to hospitals. The rapid results obtained by the Detect-Ready MRSA assay allows hospitals to more effectively separate MRSA carriers from non-carriers, thus preventing the spread of MRSA and the potentially fatal systemic infections MRSA can cause in some patients.
A: How does it improve on diagnostic tests already out there?
TW: The Detect-Ready MRSA kit provides a number of important performance advantages over other testing methods, including increased accuracy, decreased time and effort to produce results and reduced risk of technician error and cross contamination. The unique technology in the Detect-Ready kits provides a differential diagnosis engine producing highly accurate results, minimizing the false positives and false negatives experienced with other diagnostic screening kits.
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