Thomas Scientific has partnered with Truckee Applied Genomics to offer products supporting safer and more reliable COVID-19 testing.
RENO, NV and SWEDESBORO, NJ, -- Thomas Scientific has partnered with Truckee Applied Genomics (TAG) to distribute its unique patient sample transport reagents. The new products are designed to address a full spectrum of molecular and protein testing challenges made clear by the COVID-19 pandemic and the wildfire growth of the Delta variant.
Thomas Scientific has been appointed as the sole distributor for the US and Puerto Rico of TAG regents. The agreement provides an expanded distribution channel to research, diagnostic, and manufacturing customers, including clients in molecular pathology, diagnostic kit development, and variant tracking research labs.
With COVID-19 spread increasing from the Delta variant, demand for rapid antigen protein tests has surged and the need for broader NGS-based variant surveillance has become clear. As the diversity of testing has grown, it has become imperative that resources be designed to accommodate changing needs, while maintaining lab worker safety.
One key factor for testing flexibility is enabling patient samples to be sent to any available lab without costly and error-prone cold chain shipping. Another key factor is designing in better safety from collection through lab processing, by inactivating virus before transport. With the growth of non-inactivating antigen tests kits, there is a clear need to develop new kits with reagents that inactivate virus to support safter handling.
Without virus inactivation, lab workers processing antigen tests face safety risks from viral exposure. While toxic guanidine-based virus-killing inactivating transport media (ITM) can preserve nucleic acids and be shipped without a cold chain, they do not work for antigen tests as they can denature proteins and interfere with rapid antigen testing mechanisms. And, for all test types, guanidine-based ITMs have safety and handling concerns as they produce toxic cyanide gas when used with bleach washing steps found in molecular testing processes and platforms including the Hologic (NSDQ:HOLX) Panther System as warned by FDA here.
We are excited to partner with Truckee Applied Genomics and for the ability to offer their innovative products to our customers. Please click here to view the full press release announcement online and to learn more about the partnership!