The basic implements of modern medicine – once "blunt instruments" – are becoming ever more refined. Where once diagnosis was confined to the symptoms actually presented by patient to doctor, today a much more comprehensive identification of medical problems is possible. And where once treatment was dominated by broad-spectrum antibiotics and surgery, today invasive procedures can be confined to those patients on which they can actually be effective.
This improvements have the potential to make health care not only more effective, but also far less expensive. But the most exciting advances have one challenge in common: accurately assaying the presence or expression of many genes at once: "multiplexing."
Talon Biometrics is pioneering an exciting new patent-pending technology (the J-probe™) that can query tens of thousands of genes in a simple, single-tube reaction, with ease and accuracy far exceeding any alternative approach. In so doing, Talon opens a number of market opportunities.
Pathogen Testing
Multiplex assays based on the J-probe technology can swiftly determine whether specific virulent strains of viruses such as HPV are present in pap smears or tissue samples. |
Agriculture And Food Processing
In agriculture, genetic traits desired in a particular crop can be verified at the single-seed level. And in food processing, molecular tests for dangerous pathogens can replace costlier, slower and chancier cell culture techniques. |
Companion Diagnostics
Many new drugs are useful only for patients of a particular genotype. Multiplex assays of 30 – 50 genes can determine what biochemical pathways are implicated in disease, and therefore what treatments are appropriate. |
Environmental Testing
Molecular diagnostics can quickly identify dangerous pathogens at low levels in the air or water, and simultaneously spot most known bioterror threats such as anthrax or genetically modified influenza. |
Noninvasive Diagnostics
Assays of embryonic components in maternal blood can determine the presence of debilitating conditions such as Down syndrome, without invasive amniocentesis. Similarly, fecal samples can replace colonoscopy in the diagnosis of early colon cancer. |
Point-Of-Care And Near-Point-Of-Care
Simple assays of many genes at a time can give unprecedented detailed results from a throat swab, stool sample or blood draw, in less than an hour – replacing the current standard of two to five days for culture-based methods. |