IQuum Receives NIAID Fast Track Grant for Development of Rapid Point-of-Care Diagnostic Assay for Pandemic Influenza

Marlborough, MA, January 11, 2010 – IQuum, Inc. announced today that it has been awarded a Fast Track grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for the development of a lab-in-a-tube based point-of-care (POC) test for the detection of potentially pandemic novel influenzas. This project will build on IQuum’s successful development of the Liat™ Influenza Assay for seasonal influenza detection and will expand the assay to detect potentially pandemic influenza viruses from respiratory tract specimens in less than 30 minutes.

“Recent flu outbreaks show that novel influenzas pose a continued risk to public health,” said Dr. Shuqi Chen, CEO of IQuum. “IQuum’s Liat Analyzer and influenza assays will enable healthcare professionals to rapidly discriminate seasonal influenzas from potentially pandemic novel influenzas, and thus will provide an important tool for patient care and pandemic preparedness.”

Pandemics caused by novel and pathogenic influenza strains have historically shown a greater potential to cause large numbers of deaths and illnesses over a short time period than virtually any other contemporary natural health threat. The three major influenza pandemics that occurred in 1918, 1957 and 1968, caused over 50 million, 1 million and 700,000 deaths, respectively. The recent emergence of avian influenza H5N1 and swine flu H1N1 further underscores the importance of pandemic preparedness. Early detection of infection and discrimination of seasonal influenza subtypes from potentially pandemic non-seasonal subtypes remains critical. Yet, no test currently exists that can rapidly subtype influenza viruses in a near-patient environment.

The Liat assay for pandemic influenza is aimed at filling this unmet clinical need. Under this project, IQuum will develop and characterize an assay to specifically detect and differentiate potential pandemic avian influenzas, such as A/H5, A/H7 and A/H9, as well as engineer a multi-sample Liat™ WorkStation to meet the challenge of extremely high patient loads during a pandemic. The resulting Liat™ Pandemic Influenza Assay will provide an automated, near-patient, medium throughput test for quickly identifying and tracking pandemic influenza outbreaks.

About the Liat™ Analyzer

The Liat Analyzer is a fully automated, portable and standalone molecular diagnostics system that promises to deliver the advancements in biotechnology to daily life. The system refines nucleic acid testing to three simple steps: collecting a raw biological sample such as whole blood into a Liat Tube, scanning the tube's barcode, and inserting the tube into the Liat Analyzer. The analyzer automatically executes all the required assay steps, including reagent preparation, target enrichment, inhibitor removal, nucleic acid extraction, amplification and real-time detection, and reports test results on the built-in touch screen within 1 hour. No further operator intervention or data interpretation is required. The system’s simplicity, along with its closed tube design and robust error prevention features, makes it ideally suited for near-patient molecular diagnostics and field operated applied tests.

IQuum is the leader in developing lab-in-a-tube technology, a novel biological sample testing platform which provides revolutionary benefits to a broad cross section of the bioassay market. The Company's proprietary technology enables the non-specialized personnel to perform more sophisticated biological sample testing in any setting with greater speed. Founded in 1998, the Company is commercializing its lab-in-a-tube technology and products for the clinical diagnostics, bio-defense, and industrial testing markets. For more information, please visit www.IQuum.com.

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