About our team
BIOPIX-T research-intensive partner, which IP and already developed product (IRIS) will be certified for production and deployment, plays a key role in IRIS-COV project as the device developer.
BIOPIX-T, a newly established SME (FORTH spin-off) will work closely with FORTH and all clinical partners and ensure the development of the IRIS devices (3D-printed and injection-molded) and their timely installation to the relevant hospitals for validation with patients samples. BIOPIX-T will be leader of commercial and distribution activities initially within Europe and S.Africa,
and in the future, worldwide.
ENZYQUEST, a start-up active in the production of enzymes and other molecular biology tools, is ideally positioned to participate in IRIS-COV as the reagents’ provider. The company has already a proven record of enzymes’ production and a commercial portfolio of products, with sales covering the European and Asian market. ENZYQUEST will produce in its wet-lab facilities the necessary reagents to perform qcLAMP. It will also establish links with other suppliers in order to ensure the anticipated extra demand fortest kits in the first 18 months of the project.
Kiara Health, IRIS-COV global diagnostics partner, is a pan-African pharmaceutical and healthcare provider. Through the already established large network in the African pharmaceutical market, the company will oversee the IRIS device and associated reagents production, validation and distribution in sub-Saharan Africa. KH guarantees the effective and smooth penetration of the newly developed technology in the African market, with significant social, health and economic benefits for the related countries. KH has a strong social interest in implementing the technology and diagnostic tests for COVID-19 and influenza asap, for the fast and broad diagnosis of people in Africa, especially those living in remote areas with limited access to
a hospital and/or health-caring.The company will leverage EU contribution with currently available governmental funds to produce and distribute IRIS-COV innovative technology to several sub-Saharan countries, including S. Africa, Namibia,
Ethiopia, Lesotho etc.
PKNM brings the expertise to guide the certification processes that are necessary to produce the final products. PKNM will focus in an absolute personalized and niche manner all the issues related with Design / Evaluation, / Implementation and Due Diligence of Translational Projects, Pre -Clinical Development, Clinical Development, Medical & Regulatory Affairs and Translational Applied Medicine for several clients, mostly Startups affiliated to the Swiss and European Academia, focused in MedTech, or Biotechnology or in Pharma.
Medical doctors and clinicians constitute a key group of partners within the consortium; research-intensive clinical partners participate by giving access to accredited diagnostic labs in four sites: UCLH-London, INSERM-Paris, ULB-Brussels (National Referral Centersfor COVID-19 in Belgium) and NHLS-S, Africa. All clinical/medical partners will provide access to the patients, but also their valuable expertise on how best to address the patients’ needs and how to best implement the newly developed diagnostic tools for alleviating people’s suffering and improve the management of the current and future epidemic within the healthcare systems. Their role will be to perform validation studies in hospital settings using patients’ samples but at the point-of-care, i.e. close to the patients and by-passing the need to send the sample to the clinical lab. They will, thus, adapt the newly developed POC methods in their diagnosis routine and will validate their performance using positive and negative samples of patients affected -or not- with the COVID-19 or other viruses giving similar symptoms. The combined use of a COVID-19 and influenza test is also going to be a significant tool for their practice, especially given that the release of the first certified products
will coincide with the beginning of the flu period.
FORTH has a track record of pioneering work in molecular biology, integrated platforms for nucleic acid analysis and biosensors, bringing in expertise related to bioassays-development and detection.This partner will develop assays and methods based on the existing IRIS prototype using already developed COVID-19 and influenza assays; working directly with crude samples will bring a paradigmatic change in diagnostics of COVID-19, especially when combined with influenza. The assistance of UCLH partner in this task will be valuable based on this partner’s
huge expertise on molecular diagnosis.