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Affinité Instruments (Montreal, QC Canada) is proud to be the official partner of Université de Montréal and Laval Université as the recipient of the CIHR Canadian 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Rapid Research Funding Opportunity. In this international collaborative effort that includes a Canadian industry-academia partnership along with hospitals, research institutions and universities in China, Affinité Instruments is part of the Canadian government’s rapid response to unite researchers in strengthening the understanding of the impact of COVID-19 on individuals and communities, and providing evidence to inform clinical and public health authorities at national and international levels.

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The proposed approach in this CIHR partnership is to develop a rapid serological test to screen patients suspected of being infected by COVID-19 in order to provide a rapid answer to physicians, and to alleviate the burden on centralized labs. Affinité Instruments’ proprietary, portable, label-free sensor is based on Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR), the standard commercial label-free biosensing technique used for over 30 years in the pharmaceutical industry. This SPR biosensor has recently been commercialized in a portable format to provide pre-clinical and clinical life science researchers broader access to the technique outside of the pharmaceutical industry. Affinité Instruments’ high performing SPR devices P4SPRTM comes in a compact design as small as a hard drive which, in the context of the CIHR project, will enable serological test integration onto disposable cartridges for the purpose of rapid diagnostics. Professor Jean-François Masson from the Université de Montréal explains the importance of serological tests in the interview given to Radio Canada (in French) (Click here for English subtitled version)