Australia’s Trajan Nutrition to market dried blood test for personalised nutrition industry
The test, which only requires a finger prick, is anticipated to replace costly, time-consuming and invasive vial blood testing. The DBS test can measure and analyse a variety of nutrients and compounds.
The company is currently in the preparatory phase and plans to target dietary supplement companies, researchers, pathology labs, health insurers and corporations in US, Europe and Asia over the next couple of months.
Future of personalised nutrition
Marco Baccanti, CEO of Trajan Nutrition told NutraIngredients-Asia he believed this blood testing technology would be the future of personalised nutrition.
He said the DBS technique utilises mass spectrometry technology and is able to measure several biomarkers from samples, including amino acids, vitamin D, to compounds found in pharmaceutical drugs.
He gave an example of dietary supplement companies, where they would provide customers with a testing kit where they could make a blood spot at home, dab it onto specially created paper, then send it to a lab for testing before they bought their products.
“This could offer people the opportunity to first see if their diet is imbalanced,” Baccanti said.
Baccanti expressed that the DBS testing kits and analysis would meet growing demand around the world for blood tests to move away from hospitals and dedicated blood test sites.
“In future we will stay at home and will receive modern technology posted to the home, we will use the test and post the paper back to the lab,” he added.
Joint venture
The technology was first discovered by Professor Robert Gibson of functional food science at the University of Adelaide and Professor Maria Makrides who leads the Healthy Mothers, Babies and Children Theme of the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI).
Trajan Nutrition recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding SAHMRI to accelerate nutrition research worldwide by translating medical research activities into therapeutic solutions for patients, and better preventative health approaches.
Trajan Nutrition was established as a joint venture with Trajan Scientific and Medical in 2017, where they have since trialed and tested the DBS technique in the Australian market.
Baccanti said merging Trajan Nutrition with Trajan Scientific and Medical meant it has the capacity to manufacture and distribute its blood tests.
Trajan Nutrition is also involved in large clinical nutrition trials of mothers and babies in APAC, such as studies on omega-3 fats in pregnancy.
