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Affinité Instruments (Montreal, QC, Canada) is proud of their contribution working with Deep Biologics (Guelph, ON, Canada) in the successful completion of phase I of the “Point-of-Care Diagnostic Kit for COVID‑19" challenge under the federal government’s Innovative Solutions Canada.

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Issued jointly by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), the objective of this challenge was to develop a proof of concept of a rapid diagnostic platform for Covid-19 that can be deployed remotely outside the traditional centralized test facilities. Deep Biologics was one of the four research and development funding recipients under the challenge, proposing the use of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) combined with their proprietary cost-effective antibody to detect SARS-CoV-2 in saliva samples. Deep Biologics invited  Affinité Instruments to collaborate on the project. In just two week, Affinité Instruments was able to demonstrate, through pre-clinical validations of saliva samples, the repeatability and stability of viral detection using Affinité’s patented portable SPR biosensor using sensors coated with Deep Biologics’ proprietary antibodies. The results, including a successful live demonstration of the portable SPR biosensing technique, were presented to the Challenge committee .

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Dr. Ludovic Live, CEO of Affinité Instruments, states, “The power of Affinité’s portable SPR technology was clearly highlighted in this joint development with Deep Biologics. The ease of developing a bioassay in record time and cost-effectiveness of using this platform was proven with effective outcome quickly and reliably”. And CEO of Deep Biologics Dr. Dea Shahinas concurs: “The surprising ease of use of Affinité's portable SPR platform to quickly validate Deep Biologics proprietary antibodies for SARS-CoV-2 screening meant that we were able to perform more assay optimizations and control measurement within the limited time and budget, as well as maximize the sensitivity and specificity of this combined kit for detection of SARS-CoV-2 in saliva. The strength of this partnership lies in the teams of our two companies, which bring together motivation and expertise to tackle a challenge like development of a point of care diagnostics in an unprecedented amount of time”. 

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Both Affinité Instruments and Deep Biologics will continue this partnership to co-develop not only a rapid diagnostic test for Covid-19, but also other patient-centered point-of-care solutions to simplify access to clinical testing and early-diagnosis in the general population.