The Catalyst Centre recently received an enquiry from a Toronto-based company that scouts, develops and markets new genomic technologies worldwide. The company focuses primarily on the agriculture and aquaculture industries and works with a network of labs (private and public) and technology companies around the world. The company is developing applications for a portable (hand-held, wireless) point-of-use device for quantitative DNA analysis. They believe it has the potential to be tremendously valuable for diagnostic applications (animal and plant health, food safety, etc).

One challenge encountered by the company in the development of the technology lies in the relative complexity involved in extracting high-quality DNA from plants.

The company is interested in working with academic researchers to optimize the DNA extraction process so that samples can be run reliably on a microfluidic cassette in a point-of-use application without introducing additional complex steps.

If you are interested in learning more about this opportunity, please contact Gregor Lawson (lawsong@uogueph.ca, Ext. 53351) for additional details.