Current Research

The goals of mAbDx are to make both immediate and lasting positive impacts on healthcare by developing diagnostic tests for diseases that are currently difficult to diagnose and affect large numbers of patients with serious adverse consequences if left untreated. To accomplish these goals, we have established research collaborations with leading investigators in each of our main focus areas. These collaborations are highly synergistic, as they combine mAbDx’s established abilities in biomarker identification and assay development with the disease-specific expertise and clinical acumen of our research partners. Examples include:

Simultaneous Diagnosis of Dengue and Prognosis of Severe Dengue with a Single Point-of-Care Test

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) recently (8/25/2021) awarded mAbDx, Inc., a major Phase I SBIR grant ($599,913 for a 2-year study) to create a simple, inexpensive and rapid Point of Care test with visual plus/minus readout that will not only diagnose Dengue infections early, but also be prognostic for Severe Dengue (Title: Simultaneous Diagnosis of Dengue and Prognosis of Severe Dengue with a Single Point-of-Care Test, NIAID grant number 1R43AI162484-01A1). The test will be a first-in-class Point of Care test for Dengue diagnosis and Severe Dengue prognosis that could change clinical practice.

There is an urgent need for prognostic tests that can rapidly and early, identify patients most likely to progress to Severe Dengue. Severe Dengue is life-threatening but appropriate treatment can reduce mortality from 20-40% to less than 1%. Unfortunately, Severe Dengue is now detected only by skillful observation of clinical warning signs. Worse yet, progression to severe disease can occur within hours, making effective care difficult. Therefore, a simple, inexpensive test that provides timely diagnostic and prognostic results even in resource-limited settings would enable dramatic reductions in Dengue morbidity and mortality, while simultaneously reducing health care costs by allowing clinicians to focus resources effectively and efficiently on patients who may need them most.

Novel, Simple and Rapid Point-of-Care Lateral Flow Immunoassays for Diagnosis of Zika Virus Infection

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) recently awarded mAbDx, Inc., a Phase I SBIR grant ($300,000) to create Point of Care Rapid Tests to diagnose Zika virus infections. mAbDx has successfully developed tests that met technical performance milestones and the devices are now being evaluated for diagnostic utility in a non-human primate model by collaborators at the California National Primate Research Center. For more details, see:

Traumatic Injury and the Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SIRS)

The Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SIRS) can be life threatening and is the result of a dysregulated, overly aggressive immune response (sometimes referred to as a Cytokine Storm) to pathogen associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) during infection, e.g., Sepsis, and/or to damage associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) released from damaged tissues by traumatic injuries. DAMPS are cellular proteins normally sequestered within the cell, beyond reach of the immune system, but which can be released into the circulation and interstitial spaces upon tissue injury.

Mitochondrial DAMPs (mtDAMPs) have been implicated as major drivers of SIRS after trauma, including non-infectious (sterile) SIRS, because they retain inflammatory bacterial characteristics from the evolutionary origin of mitochondria as intracellular symbionts. However, mtDAMPs and details of the mechanism of the inflammatory response resulting in DAMP-driven SIRS are poorly understood. These are questions with great clinical urgency, because trauma is the major cause of death for young adults and up to one-third of all trauma deaths are due to SIRS.

Work at mAbDx has established a novel approach to identify mtDAMPs as early biomarkers of incipient SIRs and to simultaneously make immunocytochemical reagents and assays for their detection and analysis. The aims of this work are to: 1) better understand and eventually target with therapeutic interventions, the mechanisms and initial drivers of SIRS after sterile trauma, and 2) develop new diagnostic tests for early identification of trauma patients at risk of SIRS so they can be provided appropriate critical care and minimize the risk and adverse consequences of untreated SIRS. For more details, see:

Marine Shellfish and Coral Vibriosis

Vibrio coralliilyticus (Vc) is an opportunistic marine bacterial pathogen. Although not a human pathogen, Vc can cause serious production disruptions in marine shellfish hatcheries and is currently difficult to detect and manage. We have developed a novel lateral flow immunoassay (LFA), the Vibriosis RapidTest, that can detect Vc contamination in oyster hatcheries and are working to determine how hatcheries can best to deploy the test to avoid costly disruptions in production of oyster larvae and spat. For more details, see:

And in a surprising development, collaborators have determined that the Vibriosis RapidTest can also be used to monitor Vibrio coralliilyticus as a pathogen involved in coral wasting diseases and multiple labs are now using the test for such studies. See:

The mAbDx Vibriosis RapidTest has been used to help elucidate the role of the opportunistic marine bacterial pathogen Vibrio coralliilyticus in stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD)