Samuel Zürcher – certus molecular diagnostics ag

Nowadays, the detection of infectious diseases happens mostly in specialized labs. The analysis takes about four to five hours – from the moment the sample arrives in the laboratory. This waiting time leads to delays of several days in the diagnostic and therapeutic procedure, to unneccessary workload and expenses and to partly superfluous prescription of antibiotics.

The company certus molecular diagnostics ag sets new standards in infection diagnosis: isoAMP offers a highly reliable method for the detection of pathogens such as Herpes or influenza viruses. From the swab to the result, it takes only half an hour and there is no need to go through the lab, as the test can be done and analyzed directly on site in any doctor’s practice. So if a patient with suspected influenza or herpes enters the clinic, a swab is taken and the results are in after 30 minutes which enables the treating physician to act accordingly. Immediate, pathogen-specific and adequate therapy is now made possible.

isoAMP works by a method that specifically detects microorganisms. This means that the search is designed for a specific pathogen which the blood or the swab is tested for.

In developing the method, the two founders have concentrated on the detection of herpes viruses. Next in line is an influenza test, which is then to be expanded to other respiratory pathogens. Basically, the method always remains the same, the test simply needs to be adapted to the pathogen, i.e. its specific genes. For this reason, this genetic detection method is extremely interesting for a variety of fields, for example for the food industry, veterinary medicine or the medtech industry.

Human-medical microbiological point-of-care diagnostics are a rapidly growing billion-dollar market. Point-of-Care will largely replace the existing laboratory analysis in the near future.