RapidPlex | ICx Biosystems | WMD Detector Selector

General Description
RapidPlex is a fully automated system for environmental monitoring of bacteria, viruses, and toxins. This advanced system has automated sample preparation, detects with high sensitivity, and identifies with high accuracy up to 20 different pathogens at once. Detected threats include toxins, DNA viruses, RNA viruses, bacteria, and bacterial spores. The RapidPlex identifier is capable of detecting at least 10-20 threat targets in a single test and utilizes multiple (2-3) independent biomarkers per threat target to ensure high levels of detection confidence and to minimize false positives, especially from non-pathogenic near-neighbors that are often present in the environment. The analyzer’s total analysis time is configurable dependent on sensitivity requirements, but in its most sensitive mode, provides sample-to-answer times of less than 30 minutes. RapidPlex was developed initially for unattended environmental monitoring, but is adaptable to other biodetection applications such as clinical diagnostics and food/water testing.

Technical Description
RapidPlex employs fast multiplex PCR to amplify DNA and RNA target sequences and a rapid multiplexed antibody sandwich assay for detection of toxins and surface proteins on viruses and bacteria. DNA amplicons and protein targets are detected by capturing them with specific capture probes on tens of thousands of microbeads. Each microbead is color coded to identify which threat hypothesis is being tested. This fluorescent imaging readout of thousands of assay microbeads enables coverage of a long threat list without the loss of sensitivity associated with sample splitting. The analyzer uses multiple molecular markers per threat to reduce false positives.

Evaluation Criteria

THROUGHPUT: