With the help of Marlborough company DNAiTECH anyone can now make DNA measurements in the field.
The start-up biotech company is a new Marlborough Research Centre (MRC) tenant located on MRC’s Grovetown Campus.
DNAiTECH’s core product is hand-held isothermal DNA amplification technology integrated with smartphones as the optical reader and data processor.
While the technology is used in conventional laboratory situations, its strength is in enabling molecular biology beyond the lab, for example, for on-site environmental testing, point-of-care biomedical applications and as a teaching tool for secondary education.
Founders Dr Murray Broom and Tatiana Ceban are excited that DNAiTECH now has a lab at MRC’s Grovetown campus, with space for research and development and production.
“We look forward to being part of, and contributing where possible to, the MRC research community,” says Murray.
Murray is a biochemist with a PhD from Otago University and was involved in the gene mapping of Batten disease, a degenerative neurological disorder, and developed large insert chromosomal libraries (YACs) for AgResearch and the US Department of Agriculture. He is a co-founder of Izon Science, a Christchurch-based nanotechnology company. Tatiana’s background is in education and psychology and she manages the digital aspects of DNAiTECH.