Eurostars Project granted to RnAssays
Eurostars, the Joint Programme dedicated to collaborative R&D between SMEs, ranked RnAssays and its partners 11th out of 293 eligible bids, thus guaranteeing funding for their innovative GO-WITH-THE-FLOW project!
Go-With-The-Flow will deliver improved veterinary and food safety screening using innovative bead-based suspension array affinity assays (SAAA). One key objective of the project is the development of multi-analyte screening tests for antibiotic residues in animal-derived samples; another is to provide an efficient, automated and affordable high throughput screening system to assess the reproductive quality of animals. A further work package will develop a multi-plex assay for detecting animal diseases.
Together with its partners, Unisensor and CER Groupe (Wallonia, Belgium) and Kopenhagen Fur (Denmark), RnAssays (the Netherlands) is further developing bead-based suspension screening arrays that have already set a new standard in veterinary and food safety testing.
There is an increased requirement for cheap and effective detection methods for safety and quality control in production animals. The project will deliver a platform that will run calibrated, validated kits for the simultaneous detection of residues of veterinary antibiotics, chemical contaminants and transmissible diseases that will be launched soon after its completion.
In practice, this means the detection of multiple analytes in a single test portion of the sample in a single analysis run. Laboratories will thus be able to provide end-users with profiles of their food products, herds and flocks, such as antibiotic-free (AF) and specific pathogen free (SPF) at an affordable price.
RnAssays has made possible the detection of bacterial, viral and/or parasitic infections and chemical contaminants simultaneously in a single test portion in a single analysis run.
Until now, screening for residues of veterinary drugs has involved either very aspecific tests or a series of different ELISA tests. Other problems with classical testing technology are time taken (bacteriological tests) and expensive and labour-intensive procedures (mass-spectrometry) if multiple agents have to be analyzed. In RnAssays’ SAAA technology, the beads are individually distinguished by size and fluorescence as they pass by the bead analyzer.
The combination of bead sizes with different fluorescent intensities creates powerful and flexible multi-plex possibilities. SAAA tests can be applied to a wide range of analytical matrices including blood, egg, faeces, kidney, meat, meat drip and milk.
It is not the first time that RnAssays technical and innovative excellence has been recognized. In 2007, RnAssays was awarded EUREKA status for its leading-edge technology. In the same year the company was also rewarded with the Gold World Poultry Prize for the most promising new products to improve poultry safety. CER Groupe and Unisensor have been, and continue to be, involved in several European Framework Programme research projects.
Eureka
Together with its partners, RnAssays is convinced that cost-effective, multi-analyte testing provides a durable solution to the ever-increasing pressures to improve efficiency, reduce costs and increase bio-security in veterinary and food safety screening.
RnAssays and its partners for Eurostars GO-WITH-THE-FLOW project:
CER Groupe is a well-known institute for the production of high-quality biological reagents.
Kopenhagen Fur is the world leading mink fur producer recognized for its exceptional quality.
RnAssays is an R&D-orientated company focused on development and sales of easy-to-use products for the detection of animal and public health agents as well as production risks in the primary sector of the animal production chains.
Unisensor is a world leader in Food Safety Diagnostics supplying advanced and innovative products for fast and multiple analyses of foods.