Clearbridge BioLoc Unveils Innovative Lab-on-Card Analysis Platform for Point-of-Care Testing at World's Largest Clinical Lab Conference

ATLANTA, July 25, 2011 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Singapore-based medical device company, Clearbridge BioLoc, today unveiled the prototype of its flagship product, AssayQuest™. This is a fully-automated, portable analysis platform that can perform complex and cost effective point-of-care testing from a finger-prick blood sample. It potentially enables clinicians and healthcare workers to conduct professional, laboratory-quality tests at the point-of-care, receiving the results within minutes, enabling well-informed decisions on the spot. The prototype for AssayQuest™ was revealed to clinical laboratory professionals at the 2011 American Association for Clinic Chemistry (AACC) Annual Meeting, held in Atlanta, U.S. from 24 to 28 July 2011.

Clearbridge BioLoc's AssayQuest™ system consists of two parts - a disposable Lab-on-card Test-card and Reader. The Test-card contains numerous blisters that are filled with customisable reagents connected by a microfluidic matrix. Within the Reader, a roller pump mechanism processes the Test card and ruptures the blisters in an automated, programmable sequence. This delivers the reagents to reaction chambers in a specific and time-controlled manner that allows particularly sophisticated test protocols to be performed while mimicking laboratory test conditions. This robust mechanism allows complicated assays, such as ELISA(1), to be performed with no manual intervention. Any test that requires sequential injections can be potentially performed by AssayQuest™, whether biochemical, chemical or DNA-based. Through AssayQuest™, assays, which are normally conducted by trained technicians in laboratories, may soon be performed affordably at the point-of-care in a reliable, reproducible manner.

The AssayQuest™ Reader connects to a smartphone that contains a mobile application called AQroid™. This allows smartphones to control the system, capture the result and analyse it. Healthcare professionals can use AQroid™ for generating quantifiable point-of-care testing data, which is used in patient monitoring, diagnosis and analysis. AQroid™ also enables transmission and sharing of test data over 3G cellular networks as well as other wireless options such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS location tagging.

Clearbridge BioLoc's AssayQuest™ system seeks to translate existing clinical tests that are currently performed in central laboratories using highly trained technicians on expensive and bulky equipment, into a portable system eliminating delays in receiving results. Advantages of the AssayQuest™ system include:

1. Fully quantitative - The AssayQuest™ system is not limited to "Positive / Negative" test results but can provide quantitative data, emulating complex assay procedures normally performed only in professional laboratories.
2. Customisable - The AssayQuest™ Test-card's blister arrangement, reagent type and quantities are configured based upon the intended assay. It is a flexible platform that can be tailored to suit a variety of assay formats and tests.
3. Cost-effective and scalable - The innovative roller pump technology eliminates the need for expensive micro-pumps and micro-valves, commonly used in other lab-on-chip systems. This significantly reduces the cost for manufacturing the Reader and the test-cards that can then be manufactured using an automated roll-to-roll process allowing fast production in large quantities while keeping costs low.
4. Simplicity - The AssayQuest™ system has the potential to make complex point-of-care testing simple. The system is easy to use and requires no manual intervention. The user just needs to place the Test-card into the Reader and AssayQuest™ does the rest.
5. Portable and connected - AssayQuest™ is a compact, lightweight, rechargeable system that facilitates point-of-care treatment. Each test-card is the size of a credit card, while the Reader is the size of a small tissue box (L 18cm x W 10cm x H 8 cm). The AQroid™ application allows users to remotely share their test data.

"AssayQuest™ is an elegant, innovative system that potentially allows any standard blood test to be customised and performed. It provides healthcare workers and other professionals with fast and affordable results at the point of care. Having developed our prototype, we are now looking to work with partners to demonstrate the effectiveness of AssayQuest™ in various ways, including during consultation at hospitals or clinics, field use in remote locations, determinations at immigration points, or to ensure food safety," said Dr. Lee Smith, CEO, Clearbridge BioLoc.

The AssayQuest™ system is based upon a patent pending technology and has been developed in Singapore. Clearbridge BioLoc is an incubatee company of Clearbridge Accelerator, a Singapore National Research Foundation (NRF) backed medical technology incubator.

To see a video of how Clearbridge BioLoc's AssayQuest™ system works, visit: www.clearbridgebioloc.com. To download photos of the AssayQuest™ Reader and Test-card visit: www.clearbridgebioloc.com/media