University of Birmingham spinout, Linear Diagnostics Limited, has received funding to finesse a point-of-care test for rapid diagnosis of gonorrhoea and chlamydia in men who have sex with men (MSM), and women who have sex with women (WSW).
The funding from the NIHR (National Institute for Health and Care Research) will cover essential work to optimise and validate Linear’s platform technology (LDx-CTNG), so it can diagnose infection from rectal and pharyngeal (throat) swabs.
Linear Diagnostics’ technology was invented by Professor, Tim Dafforn, and uses linear dichroism, where a beam of polarised light detects multiple targets from a single sample. A proof of concept study has already shown this technology can provide a fast, accurate diagnostic test, helping to limit the spread of disease. The platform will also benefit from a new rapid isothermal DNA amplification technique that is simpler than many existing technologies.
