Every year millions of people die or become gravely ill from infectious diseases such as influenza, HIV, Chlamydia and Zika virus. Currently, 80 per cent of all tests for infectious diseases involve taking a patient sample and sending it to a laboratory for analysis. This makes the tests expensive and can take days to get a result.
Planet Innovation exclusively licensed a novel thread technology from Harvard University, that is suitable as a test membrane. They then collaborated with Australian fibre experts to transform it into a controlled, functional, polymer membrane that enables superior test performance. Planet Innovation also spent two years adapting smart-phone camera technology, and integrating high performance optics with world-first image analysis to produce a low cost, high sensitivity reader. That new device is called Nplex. By combining the membrane with the new device reader, Planet Innovation created a new type of portable diagnostic device. This has enabled the development of tests for diseases which previously had to be diagnosed in a lab.
In February of 2016 clinical trials on the Nplex device platform achieved higher sensitivity results than any other product on the market. Nplex also is able to report the exact geographical location of all positive tests for infectious diseases. This means that countries and NGOs are able to act much faster in the treatment and containment of devastating epidemics and pandemics. Nplex offers a new wave of technological advancement that provides patients with a cost-effective option and allows them to be diagnosed and treated within one visit.
