Detect CEO and Co-Founder Eric Kauderer-Abrams shares his perspective about the future of at-home molecular tests and our progress advancing this important technology 👉
Chief Executive Officer @ Detect | Stanford Electrical Engineering | Molecular Diagnostics
Recently, Nature’s Elie Dolgin highlighted Detect in a story about rapid molecular tests, the advancements made during the Covid pandemic, and the continuing efforts to move testing closer to the patient. Detect was one of the first companies to develop and launch a rapid molecular Covid test, just in time for the Omicron surge of 2021-22. The pandemic brought about an unprecedented wave of new technology, capital, and regulatory advancements into the diagnostics space as everyone was racing to try to help get things back to normal. With the emergency phase of the pandemic behind us, I’m proud that Detect is one of a few companies continuing to advance rapid molecular testing. We have spent the last two years developing a whole new testing platform, incorporating critical lessons we learned from our first product. ** Sample prep unlocks the post-Covid pandemic testing menu. Like many rapid molecular tests, our first test implemented a “direct amplification” approach, skipping sample prep. While that worked for Covid testing, a more rigorous approach is needed to build a platform supporting a broad test menu spanning many types of pathogens and clinical samples. Over the last few years, we’ve built a novel sample prep module into our new platform that performs gold-standard nucleic acid purification in less than five minutes, matching the purity and recovery you get from commercial kits –and all happening under the hood with no user interaction. ** Novel chemistry needed for decentralized testing. Racing against the pandemic, we had no choice but to use existing reagents from external suppliers in our first product. Over the past few years, we’ve developed our own novel nucleic acid amplification chemistry that runs in 5-10 minutes with the same sensitivity and specificity as PCR. Our AI-powered primer design software turns the esoteric art of isothermal amplification assay design from alchemy into a science. Our team of protein scientists and organic chemists have designed novel enzymes, dyes, and small molecules that establish new limits on the sensitivity, specificity, speed of molecular testing. Owning the production of our reagents is critical for meeting the exacting low cost requirements needed to make the economics of this new testing paradigm work. ** It takes a village to make a new medical technology successful. Outside of the context of a pandemic, questions of clinical and economic utility are more subtle. Our new platform will give test results within the time window of a single clinical visit, minimizing loss-to-follow-up, improving antibiotics stewardship, improving outcomes, and minimizing downstream costs. We’ve listened carefully to patients, providers, and payors and have designed every aspect of our platform to meet the needs of the whole ecosystem. I look forward to sharing more about our new platform soon!