LightDeck Diagnostics, the company leveraging planar waveguide technology to deliver lab-quality diagnostics in minutes, today received a $2M contract from HJF, as funded by the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense (JPEO-CBRND) and the Department of Defense (DoD). 

The funds will be used to develop a rapid, quantitative, multiplexed test for C-reactive proteins (CRP), inducible-proteins 10 (IP-10 or CXCL-10), and other inflammatory markers, which are known as cytokines and chemokines. The LightDeck® Analyzer’s inflammation panel is expected to help healthcare providers determine the status of a patient’s health and the severity of their condition. The results could inform triage and treatment decisions on-site and in real-time, potentially making a significant difference in patient outcomes. 

Inflammation plays a critical role across all diseases, from infectious diseases like COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses to diseases like cancer. In COVID-19, the body triggers an inflammatory response that produces proteins including CRP and IP-10 or CXCL-10, which are markedly elevated in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Preliminary data LightDeck gathered in conjunction with HJF suggest that panels including CRP and IP-10 biomarkers may have utility in predicting the hospitalization risk of COVID-19 patients.  

“During pandemics or biothreat events, when resources like nursing staff, ICU beds, and ventilators are limited, triaging patients by determining the risk of a patient needing hospitalization and allowing caregivers to properly allocate healthcare resources is of the utmost importance,” remarked Dr. Danielle Clark of HJF. “We believe the LightDeck analyzer capabilities to measure a panel of inflammation markers in minutes should allow improved patient care promptly upon arrival to the emergency room or clinic.”

The LightDeck Analyzer leverages planar waveguide technology, which can enable quantitative, highly sensitive and specific tests for dozens of biomarkers on a single cartridge. The analyzer is compact, lightweight, and has a simple workflow so that healthcare providers could easily implement it in labs, hospitals, clinics, or at the point-of-care.

Find out more in the LightDeck Diagnostics press release.