The collaboration with Kirkegaard & Perry Laboratories (KPL) will allow faster speed to market for the detection kits used in their RAPID-B detection platform.
The detection kits will be powered by KPL's BacTrace affinity-purified primary antibodies.
Vivione and KPL plan manufacturing and commercialization, with the first commercial kit (E. coli O157:H7) submitted for independent certification by the Association of Analytical Communities.
Vivione's RAPID-B system combines flow cytometry with proprietary reagents (contained in detection kits which are designed to target a particular pathogen).
Seven hour detection
It has the potential to provide detection down to a single cell in seven hours (including sample preparation) versus up to 48 hours for competing culture based methods, said the firm.
Bacteria detection, data collection, and analysis results are provided after 60 seconds, not including sample preparation.
Vivione said it offers higher performance compared to other rapid diagnostic systems currently on the market, because unlike culture-based methods, the RAPID-B system does not require isolation of bacteria and works with background interference from matrices like food.
FDA collaboration
"Vivione collaborated with the US Food and Drug Administration's National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR) over the past six years to accomplish the development and testing of the RAPID-B system," said Kevin Kuykendall, Chief Executive Officer of Vivione.
"The strategic relationship with KPL enables us to immediately expand our product offerings and get to market much faster by leveraging their leadership expertise in antibody-based reagent production."
The RAPID-B system is operated by lab personnel and does not require frequent calibration like most flow cytometer systems, making it suitable of being used in manufacturing environments.
Albert Perry, chief executive officer of KPL, added: "A significant portion of our business success stems from enabling our supply partners to accelerate commercialization with products that we are confident are robust and work the same way year after year.
“We are pleased to be part of the RAPID-B commercialization program and believe it will provide food manufacturers with the ability to reduce their time to results while providing more accurate information which can be used to reduce potential recalls and provide better consumer protection."