CSIRO's RAFT Technology to provide new diagnostic edge for US start-up Nexgenia

Based in Seattle, Washington, Nexgenia is developing novel polymeric in-vitro reagents that are game-changers – creating higher speed and sensitivity attributes for new diagnostics across a wide array of applications including immunoassays for clinical diagnosis. Improving these key attributes will provide Nexgenia with a significant edge in these markets. They have received a grant from the Life Sciences Discovery Fund of the state of Washington to fund a project with CSIRO to commercialize the manufacturing process for these novel polymeric reagents.

According to Dr Cathy Foley, Chief of CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering,

"It is very pleasing to see our RAFT technology providing competitive advantage for start-up companies like Nexgenia. This technology is ideally suited for applications requiring novel, high functioning polymers."

Dr Thomas Schulte, founder and President of Nexgenia, says that CSIRO's RAFT technology offers companies like Nexgenia a robust and reproducible method for the manufacture of specialty polymers and high-value biomedical and life science products made with those polymers.

About Nexgenia: Nexgenia is an emerging company that provides faster, smarter reagent technology for better IVD and Life Science assays and separations. With its smart, magnetic polymer reagents Nexgenia serves leading manufacturers and distributors of products in the diagnostic and life science markets. www.Nexgeniacorp.com

About the Life Sciences Discovery Fund of the state of Washington (http://www.lsdfa.org/lsdf)

About CSIRO

CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) is Australia's national research agency and is one of the largest and most diverse scientific organisations in the world. CSIRO carries out scientific research in areas including energy, the environment, information technology, health, mining, manufacturing, agriculture, and natural resources. CSIRO has active research programs and partnerships furthering the development of the RAFT technology and its applications. More information on CSIRO is available at www.csiro.au

About RAFT

RAFT or Reversible Addition-Fragmentation chain Transfer polymerisation, is a technology platform for making better polymers. It uses simple free-radical chemistry to enable the synthesis of tailor-made polymers with predetermined molecular weights, narrow polydispersities and complex architectures. RAFT is very broadly applicable to polymers particularly in the areas of industrial, personal care, agricultural and biomedical polymers where higher order functionality is required. The development of the RAFT process has given rise to a new branch of polymer chemistry, and its inventors have received numerous awards for RAFT's development. To date, more than 4,000 papers have been published on RAFT, coupled with over 400 patents granted globally. CSIRO licenses and collaborates to develop RAFT applications globally, and would like to hear from you about your application. More information on RAFT is available at www.csiro.au/products/RAFT Please contact us at raft@csiro.au