Swedish medtech start-up Capitainer today announced that the company has entered a collaboration agreement with Timothy J. Garrett Laboratory, College of Medicine, University of Florida.
Dr. Tim Garrett is one of the leading experts and an authority in the US when it comes to applying mass spectrometry within the area of metabolomics and its clinical applications with a huge network of collaborating partners including clinics at UF and externally.
The aim with the new collaboration is to accelerate method development and pave the way for broader use of the qDBS technology in clinical diagnosis. Capitainer has shown to have a superior product for self-sampling with excellent usability and volumetric accuracy and precision. However, there is a shortage of clinical laboratories and methods for microsamples collected at home, and the collaboration will accelerate development of necessary laboratory tools.
“I’m excited about developing precision diagnostics that will enable future health care and look forward to this collaborative effort,” said Dr. Timothy Garrett, an associate professor in the university’s Department of Pathology, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine. “Our success would mean a changed landscape for medical diagnostics.”
Dr. Donald H. Chace, Capitainer’s North Americas representative will also add his vast experience in dried blood spot analysis, covering Neonatology, Clinical Chemistry, Newborn Screening, Mass Spectrometry and Forensic Science. This combined with Garrett’s access to a network of clinics for collaboration will, Capitainer believes, create the ideal foundation for new testing method development and validation.
“I have known Tim for ten years. Now we can together develop new clinical analysis in areas of screening, diagnostics and metabolomics research starting at the 1st Step. A new, improved, more precise, protected dried blood spot.” says Dr. Chace.
Capitainer’s qDBS-sampling technology has been validated in real world population studies. No less than 97% of the cards sent back by regular mail to the lab met the approved quality standard for analysis. Additionally, a major study published in Clinica Chimica Acta on the advantages of volumetric microsampling DBS devices in monitoring patients with phenylketonuria (PKU), demonstrated conclusively the superiority of Capitainer’s solution over conventional cards and competition, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0009898122012566.