GrapheneDx, General Graphene Corporation and Sapphiros have announced a strategic partnership to industrialise graphene-based biosensors for medical devices used to diagnose a variety of diseases at the point of care and in consumer settings.
GrapheneDx is an in vitro diagnostics company focused on improving diagnostic capability at the point of care and in consumer settings. The company is an expert in functionalising graphene to create graphene field effect transistors (GFETs), which are biosensors that can be used to detect disease in biological samples. Graphene is a single-atom thick layer of carbon that is renowned for its impressive electrical properties that enable the detection of various biomolecules with great accuracy.
GrapheneDx's medical devices are designed to provide laboratory-quality accuracy, deliver results in less than five minutes and be simple enough to be performed both at the point of care and by patients without the supervision of a medical professional. The company's GFET platform is extremely versatile, demonstrating performance across a variety of disease states (sexually transmitted infections, respiratory disease, cardiac disease, concussion and others) and sample types (stool, urine, swabs, blood) with little or no sample preparation. Additionally, the platform is capable of multiplexing numerous analytes concurrently with a single patient sample. GrapheneDx's first tests will be for the diagnosis of sexually transmitted infections, including Chlamydia and Gonorrhoea, using a non-invasive, easy-to-collect urine sample.
"This strategic partnership highlights each partner's core competencies, and will allow GrapheneDx to bring affordable, accurate and timely diagnostics to patients around the world," said Mike Musgnug, CEO of GrapheneDx. "We are thrilled to be partnering with General Graphene and Sapphiros to rapidly scale and commercialise our technology by employing best-in-class tools, processes and know how."
General Graphene Corp, a leader in the production of graphene at scale, will serve as GrapheneDx's preferred supplier of sheet-based chemical vapour deposition (CVD) graphene, which will be delivered in a roll-to-roll format for use in Sapphiros's manufacturing facility.
