Verax’s patented Pan Genera Detection (PGD) technology is based on the insight that recent advances in the field of immunotherapeutic agents can be used to develop tests to detect the broad array of bacteria in blood components. This broad detection is based on the existence of shared, or conserved, antigens that are common to the cell walls of the two broad classes of bacteria – Lipoteichoic Acids on Gram-positive bacteria and Lipopolysaccharides on Gram-negative bacteria. Verax targets these conserved Gram-positive and Gram-negative antigens to test biological samples for a broad range of bacterial contaminants by using pan genera binding agents to directly bind to these targets. This detection approach does not depend upon surrogate measures for bacterial presence or the measurement of byproducts of bacterial growth.
One major advantage of this approach is the large number of conserved antigens found on the cell surface of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. This provides a large number of detection events for a relatively small number of contaminating bacteria, which translates into the potential for a highly sensitive test system which is both simple and rapid to perform.
Verax’s PGD technology is ideally suited to address the need for rapid and practical tests for bacterial contamination. This is due to its unique ability to detect a wide variety of possible bacterial contaminants quickly, cost effectively and with minimal labor. In addition to its use in blood components and cellular therapies, PGD technology has broad potential application in the areas of patient diagnosis, food testing, non-diagnostic detection, environmental testing, and research purposes.
The Company's first product is the Platelet PGD Test – a rapid test for the detection of bacterial contamination in platelets.
