Ambri leads nano testing
Peter Roberts
One of the first medical instruments to come from the nanotechnology revolution yesterday entered clinical evaluation at Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital, carrying with it the fate of its listed Australian developer, Ambri.
Originally based on CSIRO research, Ambri has put behind it a company reconstruction and losses of more than $50 million in the past two years with the commencement of six weeks of trials of its SensiDx point-of-care blood analyser.
" Our system can return critical diagnostic test results in less than 10minutes rather than the hour or more ... now," Ambri managing director Jonathan Wright said. " The technology meets a longstanding, worldwide medical need."
The Ambri device that will operate initially in the hospital's pathology laboratory is aimed at rapid testing of blood, saliva and urine samples in ambulances, emergency departments, operating theatres and intensive care wards.
It has a disposable cartridge of antibodies that react to specific diseases or chemicals. Once detected, tiny channels less than a nanometre - one thousand millionth of a metre - across pass a signal to the instrument's electronics.
Dr Wright said Ambri, which raised $22.5 million in 2003, hoped to make its first sales early next year
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