PathogenDx Receives Federal Grant From the NIH As Part of the RADx Program
PathogenDx, Inc., an Arizona based technology company which has developed an ultra-accurate DNA-based customized pathogen testing platform for the food, agricultural and health sectors, announced today that the company has been awarded a federal grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under their Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostic (RADx) program. The resources will be used to increase the testing capacity of PathogenDx’s DetectX-Rv Microarray Assay for COVID-19 testing to a national level.
The NIH launched the RADx initiative with the mission to make millions of tests available to Americans, especially those most vulnerable and disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, by late summer of this year. It was established to propel innovation in the development, commercialization and implementation of technologies for COVID-19 testing. The RADx program funds projects working on new applications of existing technologies that make tests easier to use, easier to access and more accurate.
“We are honored to receive a federal grant from the NIH under their RADx program. The infusion of capital will help bring our microarray tests to the broader population during a time when we need it most,” said Milan Patel, CEO of PathogenDx. “The NIH and UMass Medical School partnership is an incredibly synergistic collaboration working to develop innovative testing technologies to address not just the COVID-19 testing challenge, but also to prepare for the next wave. Technologies like our DetectX-Rv microarray will be critical when facing the predicted uptick in the fall in addition to the extra challenge of distinguishing different symptoms such as the flu and common cold, in addition to COVID-19.”
PathogenDx’s DetectX-Rv Microarray Assay for COVID-19 testing is a multiplex viral diagnostic assay for the detection of SARS-CoV-2, and is currently in the process of receiving FDA authorization. The test delivers better sensitivity and specificity than current qRT-PCR FDA-authorized COVID-19 tests while also detecting COVID-like-viruses and subsequent mutations from SARS-CoV-2, making it one of the most extensive tests in the industry. With a multiplex system, thousands of samples can be tested each day, the level necessary and needed in terms of population-level testing, as well as opening up the economy in a risk-mitigated fashion.
This project is supported by the NIH Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) program and has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Grant No. 3U54HL143541-02S1.
About PathogenDx
Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, PathogenDx’s mission is to become the new standard in DNA-based testing through widespread adoption of its advanced micro array testing platform for the agriculture, food and health diagnostics industries. PathogenDx’s technology can rapidly identify and detect up to multiple pathogens all in a single test, in 6 hours providing triplicate data per analyte for certainty in results with a simple and easy process. The company’s DNA-testing products – DetectX™, QuantX™, and EnviroX™– are disrupting the century-old practice of petri-dish testing and qRT-PCR molecular platform to identify, detect and quantify pathogens. This technology will help growing businesses deliver safer products to the market, and ensure healthier lives by identifying infections earlier, ultimately saving millions of dollars to the industries it serves.
