Public Funding for Intelligent Fingerprinting Limited

Public description The project will use Intelligent Fingerprinting's existing technology -- which features highly sensitive lateral flow technology and fluorescence measurement techniques within a portable test reader -- and be developed to create a 'point-of-care' test that allows COVID-19 testing to be carried out quickly and safely by non-medical professionals. Intelligent Fingerprinting will work with researchers at the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London to validate its testing approach and accelerate development. A fingerprint-based system could play a significant role in enabling rapid coronavirus testing at the point of care. Current diagnostic tests for coronavirus -- which tell whether people have the COVID-19 virus -- can take hours or even days if the test sample needs to be sent off to a laboratory for analysis. In contrast, the Intelligent Fingerprinting approach, which works by collecting fingerprint sweat onto a small test cartridge for analysis using a portable reader, has potential to deliver a positive or negative COVID-19 result on-site within just ten minutes. The system is hygienic and non-invasive and by using the sweat from fingerprints rather than nasal or oral fluid samples, there is no hazardous biological waste associated with each test. Intelligent Fingerprinting's testing solution features a small, tamper-evident screening cartridge onto which ten fingerprint sweat samples are collected, in a process which takes less than a minute. The Intelligent Fingerprinting portable DSR-Plus analysis unit then reads the cartridge and provides a positive or negative result on-screen in ten minutes. Combining the DSR-Plus reader with a dedicated coronavirus testing cartridge would provide the basis for a robust, extremely sensitive and rapid COVID-19 test that is suitable for deployment at a range of locations. Fingerprint testing using a portable system would also be particularly valuable in supporting simple and easy testing by non-medically trained staff at multiple sites across the UK, such as care homes and workplaces.

The applicants, Intelligent Fingerprinting Limited, have developed a technology that is capable of using a fingerprint to test whether a person has had a drug in their bloodstream. This is a cheap, quick and non-invasive way of testing people at the roadside, border or prison for drugs of abuse, explosives or other substances of interest. The technology is similar in the way it works to a pregnancy test: except that a fingerprint is placed upon the square window of a sample cartridge, and a developing fluid released. The result is then read by placing the cartridge in a reader which then gives a positive or negative reading. However, to ensure such tests are accurate they must be calibrated against national standards. IFP’s test has two factors that it measures that must be calibrated in this fashion before it can be accredited by national standards authorities (UKAS): the amount of substance that it has measured and the mass of fingerprint that it is measuring this substance from. The company has a method of achieving the first of these. However, no method has been found for measuring the mass of a fingerprint, although the company has invented a way of measuring the amount of fingerprint deposited on an arbitrary scale. This project will work with NPL, who have an international reputation in measurement and maintenance of standards, to test whether it is possible to measure the volume of a fingerprint using a technique call White Light Interferometry (WLI). If this is possible, then the mass can be calculated from the volume.

Intelligent Fingerprinting Limited have developed a technology that allows metabolites present in the human body to be detected in human fingerprints. This in turn allows many substances that a person may have consumed to be detected (semi-quantitatively) in very small quantities. This proposal is aimed at proving the technology feasible for use in detecting drugs of abuse (DoA) in a variety of circumstances including criminal justice and work place testing. To allow this to happen the project must develop a way to establish that fingertips are not contaminated in any way by first cleaning them and stimulating the production of sweat by using a method known as iontophorisis. This is an established method of producing sweat that been used for testing for Cystic Fibrosis in people for many years; however, to adapt and use it for the IFP fingerprint test carries with it many technical and commercial risks.

Awaiting Public Project Summary

To develop non-invasive drug screening device for neonates using fingerprint analysis.

Each year over 120,000 bodies are released by UK Coroners without toxicology screening. This is due to the inability to take the invasive body fluid/tissue samples required without calling for a costly post-mortem. However, this means that many deaths that may have been caused by intentional or accidental misuse of drugs (such as opiates) go unreported. The applicants, employing technology created from research at the University of East Anglia, has developed a unique technology that allows identification of the recent drug use history from non-invasive fingerprint samples that can be carried out in as little as 10 minutes using a hand-held device. This project proposes to employ this technology to provide Coroners with a cost-effective screening tool for drugs of abuse . The technology also has significant potential for use in emergency medicine, offender management and drug rehabilitation treatment.

Many people who are admitted to A&E are are affected by legal or illegal drugs. This can mean that the treatment that is administered can be harmful or even fatal. This situation is made even worse if the patient is elderly and suffering with a condition that affects memory. Intelligent Fingerprinting has developed a non-invasive way to detect what substances a patient has in their blood by taking a simple fingerprint. This will allow doctors to make informed decisions about what treatments to administer. This project will prove the feasibility of making a hand-held device that makes this possible: in an ambulance – on the way to hospital; or at admission. This technology has great potential to save lives and money for the NHS whilst improving patient care.