DENVER, May 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Scientists from Accelr8 Technology Corporation presented a combined technical poster at the 38th annual Oak Ridge Conference, entitled “Pushing the Technology Envelope III: The Next Generations of Diagnostic Testing” on April 21. The poster title was “Identification and growth rate quantitation of individual bacterial clones using a novel microfluidic concentration device.” The poster summarized methods and results of laboratory work that demonstrate the performance of the analyses being designed into the company’s BACcelr8r(TM) rapid bacterial analysis system.
The research used the company’s patent-pending Quantum Microbiology(TM) methods for analyzing individually identified cells. The results included data from experimental models for each of seven key operating characteristics:
1. Specimen preparation 2. Bacterial concentration and surface immobilization 3. Bacterial viability after immobilization 4. Species immuno-identification 5. Quantitative growth rate measurement 6. Growth rate comparability to standard methods 7. Quantitative antibiotic kill rate measurement.
The conference was sponsored by the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC, www.aacc.org). The AACC is a large, US-based international scientific/medical society of clinical laboratory professionals, physicians, research scientists and other individuals engaged in science-related clinical laboratory disciplines. The Oak Ridge Conference is the AACC venue for new science and technology in emerging diagnostics.
The poster presentation represents the company’s first disclosure of Quantum Microbiology principles to the scientific and clinical laboratory communities. According to David Howson, Accelr8’s president, “this research shows that our methods produce results comparable to those from standard methods, but in a much shorter time. The time to results are well within our stated goals of two hours for identification and counts, and eight hours for testing antibiotic resistance. Under favorable conditions, standard methods require at least 24 hours.”
The reported research used standard bacterial reference strains and studied each step in the analytical process. “Our next steps include integrating all of the analytical steps into a single continuous procedure,” Howson continued. “We also will also proceed to studies using known concentrations of bacteria in biological fluids. These studies will help to demonstrate our ability to eliminate culturing and isolation, and analyze bacteria extracted directly from a specimen.”
In May, the company will present a poster at the General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM, www.asm.org). The ASM is the leading American professional society for microbiologists. The poster will describe
studies on a challenging type of antibiotic resistance analysis that has proven difficult to implement in standard automated systems.
“These presentations are the first in our planned pipeline of scientific and clinical publications,” added Howson. “Hospital-acquired pneumonia is the number one infectious cause of mortality in the ICU. Rapid antibiotic resistance analysis would represent a breakthrough in addressing this problem. We intend ultimately to validate the BACcelr8r as achieving this analytical goal, and these presentations offer the first evidence that this will be possible.”
About Accelr8
Accelr8 Technology Corporation (www.accelr8.com) is a developer of innovative materials and instrumentation for advanced applications in medical instrumentation, basic research, drug discovery, and bio-detection. In addition to its microarraying products, Accelr8 is also developing a rapid clinical pathogen platform, the BACcelr8r(TM), based on its innovative surface coatings, assay processing, and detection technologies.
Safe Harbor for Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this news release may be “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Statements regarding future prospects and developments are based upon current expectations and involve certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from the forward-looking statement, including those detailed in the company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Accelr8 does not undertake an obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information or future events.
Accelr8 Technology Corporation
CONTACT: John Metzger of Metzger Associates, +1-303-786-7000, ext. 2202,john@metzger.com, for Accelr8 Technology Corporation; or David Howson ofAccelr8 Technology, +1-303-863-8088, david.howson@accelr8.com
