Public Funding for Imspex Diagnostics Limited

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IMSPEX provides a range of analytical devices to different sectors to help with health, environmental and industrial problems. Our mission is to bring laboratory quality analytical capabilities out of the laboratory and to the point of need. The simplicity and speed of analysis of the technology, known as GC-IMS, is ideally placed to allow those in need of analytical information to obtain it quickly, in place and in real time, without having to rely on slow, costly and remote analytical operations. One of the GC-IMS systems from IMSPEX is the Breathspec(r), which is a breath analysis device specifically designed for the analysis of chemicals exhaled from a person when they breath out. IMSPEX believe that their Breathspec(r) can be used in the NHS or community settings to help with the diagnosis of infections and disease. As it non-invasive and results can be produced in less than 10 minutes means that people are happy to have a test. However, it is currently very difficult to make sure breath measurements are accurate and the systems needs to be tested in a certain way that regulators are happy with. Therefore, in this project, IMSPEX will work the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) who are world leaders in making calibration standards. With the help of NPL the Breathspec(r) system will be tested and validated for breath measurements against an acceptable traceable standard.

Due to the over prescription of antibiotics in cases where they do not help people get better, some bacteria have become resistant to them. To slow down this resistance, doctors need to prescribe less antibiotics in cases where they will not help. One way to do this is by developing a test to detect if a patient has a bacterial infection or not. This test should be quick, cheap and simple to undertake both at a GP surgery and in hospital and with no inconvenience a patient and preferably non-invasive. There is a need for a point-of-care (POC) diagnostics device to assist clinical decision making in the administration of antibiotics. Simply being able to identify if a patient is suffering from a bacterial, viral or fungal infection could produce a significant reduction in drug administration -- the key is to provide the clinician or GP the confidence NOT to prescribe a drug IMSPEX Diagnostics Ltd will further develop their Breathspec(r) device, which has already been successfully trialled on patients with respiratory tract infections. The developments are needed to make the Breathspec(r) device compliant with legislation for medical devices. As this is a complicated process, IMSPEX will have help from leading research scientists from Warwick University, specialist design engineers and the NHS. Creating a cost-effective, quick and easy-to-use test for deciding if patient have a bacterial or viral chest infection. IMSPEX Diagnostics Ltd will bring to market a diagnostic tool that can assist in antibiotic stewardship and rule out inappropriate antibiotic use. This will give both patients and doctors confidence in the decision to prescribe antibiotics or not. This concept is so innovative that there is currently no other company actively developing an AMR test that uses breath analysis. This means that there is an opportunity for IMSPEX Diagnostics to be first to market with such as test.

Biocides are used to control harmful and unwanted organisms and microorganisms and are used in many manufacturing processes to reduce the risk of bio-contamination in products. This can have a negative effect on the environment and so in the future here will be less and less biocides used. Although good news for the environment, manufacturers are finding it difficult to know when they have bio-contamination in their products. Bio-contamination in manufacturing processes, can ruin product ready for sale, costing manufactures millions of pounds in spoilt product or recalls. This project will develop a new analytical system for detecting and warning of unwanted biocontamination in water-based industrial systems. This project will be carried out using technology called GC-IMS to look at the key fingerprint biomarkers identified in the first stages of the project as potential early warning signals for industrial biocontamination events. Different type of mixtures will be tested to evaluate a wider range of industrially relevant samples. IMSPEX Diagnostics Ltd will further develop their GC-IMS device, which has already been successfully deployed in industrial settings. The developments are needed to make the GC-IMS sampling even more sensitive. This will advance the current instrumental detection limits by a factor of 1000\. IMSPEX will have help from leading IMS application development scientists from the University of South Wales. Creating a cost-effective, robust and easy-to-deploy biocontamination testing system to deliver a more robust alarm for biocontamination in under 30 minutes will be of great benefit, when compared to what is currently available of which can only yield results in days rather than minutes. After the project IMSPEX aims to bring to market a tool that can assist in not only significantly lowering the risk of catastrophic biocontamination events occurring in manufacturing environments but also lower the overall use of biocides, increasing sustainability of water-based manufacturing processes. There is an opportunity for IMSPEX Diagnostics to be first to market with such as system.

Due to the over prescription of antibiotics in cases where they do not help people get better, some bacteria have become resistant to them. To slow down this resistance, doctors need to prescribe less antibiotics in cases where they will not help. One way to do this is by developing a test to detect if a patient has a bacterial infection or not. This test should be quick, cheap and simple to undertake both at a GP surgery and in hospital and with no inconvenience a patient and preferably non-invasive. There is a need for a point-of-care (POC) diagnostics device to assist clinical decision making in the administration of antibiotics. Simply being able to identify if a patient is suffering from a bacterial, viral or fungal infection could produce a significant reduction in drug administration -- the key is to provide the clinician or GP the confidence NOT to prescribe a drug IMSPEX Diagnostics Ltd will further develop their Breathspec(r) device, which has already been successfully trialled on patients with respiratory tract infections. The developments are needed to make the Breathspec(r) device compliant with legislation for medical devices. As this is a complicated process, IMSPEX will have help from leading research scientists from Warwick University, specialist design engineers and the NHS. Creating a cost-effective, quick and easy-to-use test for deciding if patient have a bacterial or viral chest infection. IMSPEX Diagnostics Ltd will bring to market a diagnostic tool that can assist in antibiotic stewardship and rule out inappropriate antibiotic use. This will give both patients and doctors confidence in the decision to prescribe antibiotics or not. This concept is so innovative that there is currently no other company actively developing an AMR test that uses breath analysis. This means that there is an opportunity for IMSPEX Diagnostics to be first to market with such as test.

Palm oil is used in many food and cosmetic products by companies such as Cadbury, Nestle and Unilever, however palm oil production is currently not very sustainable and many forests are being cut down to plant new trees for the growing global demand of palm oil. These companies and the European parliament want to make palm oil more sustainable and ensure that it is farmed without deforestation and habitat degradation, particularly in South-East Asia. However, at present there are no validated methods for the traceability of palm oil apart from paper trails, which can be subject to misuse. Therefore, there is a need for an analytical test that can authenticate and trace where palm oil was farm. This will lead to certification of the palm oil and the ability to prove its sustainability. IMSPEX using their GC-IMS technology, have the ability to develop this sustainability and traceability test.

GBS is a common bacterium found in the vagina of about 2 in 10 women in the UK. Being a carrier is not harmful to you, however, many babies come into contact with GBS during labour. The vast majority of babies will suffer no ill effects. However, if GBS is passed from mother to baby at time of the birth, there is a small chance the baby will develop an infection and become seriously ill. There is no screening program available for GBS in the UK and the NHS currently uses a risk factor approach, which means that some women receive antibiotics when they don’t need them. This is because although GBS can be detected by a swab taken in late pregnancy the current testing method used by the NHS is not very reliable when a negative result is found and can take 4 days to get a result. A more accurate result can be obtained by another method, but this is only available privately as it is too expensive. This study will use a new machine called a GC-IMS. Previous work has shown it to be very accurate when testing for GBS and can report the result in less than 10 minutes. If this device were then used in the NHS it could detect GBS as soon as women go into labour and doctors will be able to give antibiotics if necessary, therefor reducing risk to new born babies.