Luminex Molecular Diagnostics, Inc. (Canada)
Luminex® (NASDAQ: LMNX) develops, manufactures and markets innovative biological testing technologies with applications throughout the life science and diagnostic industries. The company’s open-architecture xMAP® technology enables large numbers of biological tests (bioassays) to be conducted and analyzed quickly, cost-effectively and accurately.
xMAP Technology utilizes unique microsphere sets that act as carriers for any ligand-binding reaction, including antigen-antibody, receptor-ligand, enzyme-substrate, and nucleic acid hybridization. Luminex incorporates a proprietary process to internally dye polystyrene microspheres with two spectrally distinct fluorochromes. Using precise ratios of the fluorochromes, an array is created consisting of 100 different microsphere sets with specific spectral addresses. Each microsphere set can possess a different reactant on its surface. Since each microsphere set can be distinguished by its spectral address, the sets can be combined allowing up to 100 different analytes to be measured simultaneously in a single reaction vessel. A third fluorochrome coupled to a reporter molecule quantifies the biomolecular interaction that has occurred at the microsphere surface. The analyzer simultaneously identifies the bioassay and measures the results, all in real time.
Respiratory testing
There are over a dozen viral pathogens circulating today that can cause respiratory distress. Physicians need to know which of these are – or are not – infecting a patient in order to effectively prescribe treatment and to control the spread of disease. Unfortunately, determining the source of a respiratory infection using traditional methods can be slow, inconclusive and inaccurate. As a result, many physicians choose not to test and send patients home without treatment, or else prescribe antibiotics even though the cause of the infection is often caused by a virus and so would be ineffective.
Early detection is critically important both to improve individual patient outcomes and to prevent the spread of disease. xTAG multiplexing technology allows rapid and reliable testing for respiratory viruses, and if established as the standard of care, could substantially lower health care costs and potentially save lives.
