Companies' CARA™ Platform Shown to Capture Salmonella for Detection and Diagnostics in Preliminary Research
Approximately 142,000 Americans are Infected Each Year With Salmonella
DELRAY BEACH, Fla., Aug. 23, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PositiveID Corporation ("PositiveID" or the "Company") (Nasdaq:PSID) and its development partner RECEPTORS LLC ("Receptors") announced today their plans to develop a product to capture salmonella for detection and diagnostics, and potentially other food-borne illnesses such as E.coli. PositiveID believes the Combinatorial Artificial Receptor Array (CARA™) technology is able to optimize a faster, more efficient sample preparation procedure, which, in turn, translates to a more economical and accurate test and higher throughput for detecting salmonella and other bacteria.
The patented CARA™ platform is designed to be adaptable to a broad spectrum of applications in the medical, environmental and agricultural industries. Built on the foundation of its core CARA™ technology, Receptors' direct capture systems can provide more efficient capture of microbes for increased sanitation of sensitive environments, including food processing facilities.
A nationwide recall of eggs possibly contaminated with salmonella was initiated in mid-August. More than half a billion eggs have now been recalled. Many salmonella infections are due to ingestion of contaminated food. About 142,000 Americans are infected each year with salmonella enteritidis from chicken eggs. The shell of the egg may be contaminated by feces or environment, or its interior (yolk) may be contaminated from the shell or from an infected hen.
Scott Silverman, Chairman and CEO of PositiveID, said, "We believe Receptors' CARA™ technology platform is broadly adaptable to a variety of applications, yielding faster and more accurate results. Food safety in our country is a top priority and we plan to broaden our existing development relationship with Receptors to utilize their innovative technology to improve food safety, specifically salmonella detection."
PositiveID and Receptors are currently working to develop an in vivo glucose-sensing microchip, the GlucoChip™, for diabetics, and a point-of-care rapid virus detection system for influenza and other pandemic viruses. PositiveID has exclusively licensed Receptors' CARA™ platform for these applications.
Receptors' has demonstrated its CARA™ SMART MATERIALS technology in a variety of sample processing applications, including the efficient capture of bacteria from urine samples for urinary tract infection diagnostics, facile capture of intact bacteria versus free DNA for PCR-based analysis of infectious agent antibiotic sensitivity, efficient capture of influenza virus as the basis for a flu strain diagnostic, as well as broad spectrum microbe capture including salmonella for both sample preparation and sanitation applications.
About PositiveID Corporation
PositiveID Corporation develops and markets healthcare and information management products through its RFID-based diagnostic devices and identification technologies, and its proprietary disease management tools. PositiveID operates in two main divisions: HealthID and ID Security. For more information on PositiveID, please visit www.PositiveIDCorp.com.
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About RECEPTORS LLC
RECEPTORS LLC develops Smart Materials products for laboratory, clinical, industrial hygiene and healthcare use that selectively capture and measure chemical, biochemical and cellular targets from complex biological, environmental or industrial samples. The Company's patented Affinity by Design™ platform has broad applicability, ranging from the isolation of disease pathway proteins for drug discovery and production of therapeutic antibodies, to the capture of bacteria and viruses for disinfection and diagnostic purposes. Receptors LLC is a private company based in suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota. For further information please visit http://www.receptorsllc.com.
PositiveID and Receptors' Affinity by Design technology (U.S. Patent 7,504,364 "Methods of Making Arrays and Artificial Receptors"; additional U.S. and worldwide patents pending) is based on an efficient and scalable high-throughput approach to the discovery and application of stable and selective binding environments. Receptors' Smart Materials products and applications are built on its core competence of Surface Functionalization for Selective Binding. Its CARA™ discovery platform is efficiently directed to the development of sensor products and applications (U.S. Patent 7,469,076 "Sensors Employing Combinatorial Artificial Receptors"; additional U.S. and worldwide patents pending), including those applied to the closed-cycle sensing system with its critical combination of a target binding environment with a competitor reagent.
Statements about PositiveID's future expectations, including the ability of the CARA™ platform to detect salmonella and potentially other food-borne illnesses, the ability of the CARA™ platform to optimize a faster, more efficient sample preparation procedure, which, in turn, translates to a more economical and accurate test and higher throughput for detecting salmonella and other bacteria, the ability of the CARA™ platform to broadly adapt to a variety of applications, yielding faster and more accurate results, the likelihood that the Company can broaden its existing development relationship with Receptors to utilize their innovative technology to improve food safety, specifically salmonella detection, and all other statements in this press release other than historical facts are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and as that term is defined in the Private Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and are subject to change at any time, and PositiveID's actual results could differ materially from expected results. These risks and uncertainties include the Company's ability to successfully develop, fund and commercialize a product to detect salmonella and other food-borne illnesses, as well as certain other risks. Additional information about these and other factors that could affect the Company's business is set forth in the Company's various filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including those set forth in the Company's 10-K filed on March 19, 2010, and the Company's 10-Q filed on August 13, 2010, under the caption "Risk Factors." The Company undertakes no obligation to update or release any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this statement or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law.