The small number of bacteria present at collection makes traditional testing approaches used to detect blood contaminants such as viruses virtually impossible. In addition, actual growth patterns are highly biologically variable due to species, strain, isolate, lifecycle and inoculum size differences. The unpredictable bactericidal and nutritive properties of the plasma in the platelet unit itself also significantly impacts bacterial growth cycles. This makes predicting the pattern of bacterial growth in any given platelet unit extremely difficult and the selection of a testing time and method particularly challenging. If samples are taken prior to the bacteria entering log phase growth, false negative results will frequently be observed.
The Company's first product is the Platelet PGD Test – a rapid test for the detection of bacterial contamination in platelets.
