Founded in 2018, Digifluidic is a biotechnology company specializing in automatic detection, dedicated to the development of leading in-vitro diagnostic equipment. Relying on digital microfluidic technology, Digifluidic innovates an automatic nucleic acid analysis system, which is planned to be used in medical disease diagnosis, health index testing, animal and plant disease testing, food safety testing and other fields. Prior to this, Digifree received tens of millions of RMB venture capital.
According to reports, the University of Macau has provided great support to Digifridge. For example, the University of Macau has acquired a stake in Digifluidic, and provided technical and resource support. At the same time, it will develop the State Key Laboratory of Analog and Mixed Signal Ultra-Large Integrated Circuits. More than 10 years of automated nucleic acid analysis technology is exclusively licensed to Digifre. At present, the nucleic acid testing equipment developed by Digifluidic has been applied in Zhuhai Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Gongbei Customs, Doumen Aquatic Products Testing Center and other institutions, and has received unanimous praise.
"Guangdong Medical Valley Open Day" was founded by Guangdong Medical Valley, once a week, to promote exchanges and sharing in the healthcare industry. The Guangdong Medical Valley Open Day affected more than 50,000 people offline and nearly 300,000 people online. Guangdong Medical Valley established the "Open Day" event because it wanted to better serve medical companies. Guangdong Medical Valley is a medical industry cluster service provider, focusing on the investment and incubation of the biomedicine and medical device industries. The first medical industry park is located in Nansha, Guangzhou, with more than 190 companies currently settled.
Wang Chufeng, Director of Overseas Development of Digifluidic, said: "Participating in this event is to introduce the portable automated testing equipment Virus Hunter and the digital microfluidic technology chip to more people. At the same time, I hope to get in touch with more entrepreneurs to reach cooperation and common progress."
Cooperate with Macau University's "Industry-University-Research" practice and innovative testing equipment
The innovative testing equipment launched by Digifluidic is composed of two parts, one is the portable automated testing equipment Virus Hunter, and the other is the digital microfluidic technology chip. The two can be used together to provide testing services in infectious diseases, health indicators, animal and plant diseases, food safety and other fields.
At present, the product has been applied in the field of animal and plant diseases. In medical fields such as infectious diseases and health indicators, the product has obtained CE certification and is applying for a domestic medical device registration certificate. In addition, Digifrees is planning to take advantage of Macau and partners to promote its products to the Southeast Asian market.
Wang Chufeng introduced: "The detection equipment has the characteristics of small size, convenient carrying, simple operation and low cost. It solves the problem that traditional nucleic acid detection requires complicated personnel operations and special detection parts. At present, Digifree provides customers with free To provide a portable automated testing equipment Virus Hunter, customers only need to purchase digital microfluidic technology chips."
The digital microfluidic technology chip is a product researched by the University of Macau since 2006, and it is now relatively mature. Digifree obtained the exclusive authorization of this technology from the University of Macau, and at the same time received strong technical support from the University of Macau, which enabled the gradual commercialization of laboratory products and realized the "integration of production, education, research and business". In addition, the University of Macau has provided Digifridge with technical mentors, entrepreneurial mentors and other resources to promote Digifridge's positive development.
Compared with traditional PCR laboratories, portable automated testing equipment has the characteristics of portability, speed, and mobility, while the testing chip has the characteristics of miniaturization, integration, and automation, which can detect multiple indicators at a time, which not only saves staff and subjects Time and energy, and reduce pollution. In addition, in terms of testing time, Digifrey’s testing equipment only takes 90 minutes, and the total process does not exceed 2 hours, which greatly shortens the testing time.
Wang Chufeng said: "After the user has performed the on-site inspection, the staff can download the test data from the cloud. This function reduces the contact between the staff and other personnel, avoids the risk of cross-infection, and helps prevent and control the epidemic."
The reason why Virus Hunter, a portable automatic detection device, has an automatic detection function is that Digifree uses the microfluidic technology developed by the University of Macau. Through the application of digital microfluidic technology, Digifrey concentrates the reactions of several laboratory procedures on the chip, and completes the detection operation in a highly automated manner through the preset microfluidic program, greatly reducing the manual operation part.
The shorter detection time of this device is due to the ultra-fast DNA melting curve analysis technology based on digital microfluidic chip. The ultra-fast analysis method on the digital microfluidic chip runs 300 times faster than the traditional PCR machine, while the sample usage is reduced by 20 times.
Relying on the competitive advantages of products, Digifluidic Deploys in four major areas
It is precisely based on the multiple advantages of portable automatic testing equipment that Digifrey believes that the product can face more application fields and markets. At present, Digifree mainly focuses on four areas: infectious disease testing, health index testing, animal and plant disease testing, and food safety testing.
In the field of infectious disease detection, Digifree has developed a respiratory pathogen detection chip that can detect viruses such as new crown virus, influenza A virus, influenza B virus, and respiratory adenovirus; cervical cancer pathogen detection that can detect viruses such as HPV16 and HPV18 Chip; a detection chip for sexually transmitted pathogens that can detect viruses such as Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Mycoplasma genitalium; a tuberculosis drug resistance detection chip that can detect drugs such as rifampicin and ethambutol.
The detection chip can store 12 kinds of pathogen reagents in advance, and when detecting infectious disease patients, specific pathogens can be detected at one time, so that patients can receive more targeted treatment and enjoy precision medical treatment. In the pre-storage of reagents, Digifree mainly uses freeze-drying technology to prevent reagent deterioration. The application of freeze-drying technology ensures the portability of the product; the pre-storage of reagents can save the time of sampling reaction, so that the patient can get the diagnosis in time; the reagents can be stored for a long time without deterioration, which ensures the accuracy of diagnosis.
In the field of health index detection, Digifree has developed a gene detection chip for children that can detect obesity genes, asthma genes, and ADHD genes; and can detect basic adult diseases such as coronary heart disease, hypertension, and heart disease. Through the detection of health indicators, it is helpful to screen personal health, help early detection, early intervention, and early treatment.
In terms of market promotion, Digifree is applying for domestic medical device registration certificate for infectious disease testing and health index testing, and has obtained European and American CE certification. Digifrey plans to take the lead in exploring the Southeast Asian market relying on its geographical advantages and channel business resources.
In the field of animal and plant disease detection, Digifree has developed a detection chip for shrimp disease pathogens, a detection chip for fish diseases, and a detection chip for vibrio pathogens, which can detect more than 20 kinds of pathogens. Animal and plant disease detection can help farmers and farmers confirm the health of animals and plants, and intervene in time when problems are found to ensure profits. At present, Digifree has piloted this product in the aquaculture industry, and its detection effect has been unanimously recognized by farmers. Digifree said: "In the future, we will develop detection chips for chickens, pigs and other livestock animals." Digifree plans to first contact pet shops (especially pet chain stores) around the country and rely on more scientific testing methods to help. Staff manage the health of pets, thus opening up the pet testing market.
In the field of food safety testing, Digifree has developed meat source detection chips, genetically modified detection chips, and toxic substances detection chips, which can detect various ingredients in food. Food safety is about everyone. Digifrey’s food safety testing chips fill this blank market and have huge development opportunities. Digifree plans to contact local farmers to help them ensure the health of the animals and ensure the income of breeding. In addition, Digifree also plans to cooperate with relevant food safety departments to promote meat-derived detection chips to ensure food safety.
Infectious diseases, health indicators, animal and plant diseases, and food safety all have huge market space, and these markets are still in a blank period. Digifrey has a greater opportunity for early entry.
The core team focuses on technological innovation and builds commercial barriers
At present, Digifrey has obtained 3 US patent authorizations and is applying for 10 invention patents and multiple utility model patents. Since its establishment, the achievement of this achievement in just two years is inseparable from the excellent team of Digifrey.
The core team of Digifree consists of two parts, one is the scientific advisory team, including experts such as Professor Mai Peiran, Professor Jia Yanwei, and Professor Ma Xuyuan; the other part is the core entrepreneurial team, including Dr. Chen Tianlan, Dr. Dong Cheng and other professionals .
Professor Mai Peiran is a Fellow of the American Society of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, a Fellow of the British Society of Engineering and Technology, an overseas review expert of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a Ph.D. in microelectronics from the University of Macau. He is currently a professor of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Macau and a deputy of the Institute of Microelectronics. Dean, Deputy Director of the State Key Laboratory of Analog and Mixed Signal Very Large Scale Integrated Circuits. Professor Mak Peiran participated in the 70th anniversary celebration as an outstanding representative of Macau. Professor Mai Peiran has extensive experience in technological innovation and teaching guidance.
Professor Yanwei Jia is currently the director of the Microfluidics Laboratory of the State Key Laboratory of Analog and Mixed-Signal Very Large Scale Integrated Circuits at the University of Macau. He has long researched the innovation of microfluidics technology and its applications in biochemistry, including pipeline microfluidics and digital microfluidics. It has certain advantages in DNA testing, drug screening and precision medicine. Professor Jia Yanwei has undertaken and completed a number of provincial, ministerial and school-level research projects with a total project fund of nearly 10 million yuan. He has been awarded the Invention and Creation Award by the International Biocrystallization Organization and the Innovation Award by the Nature Communications Magazine.
Dr. Tianlan Chen and Dr. Cheng Dong are post-doctoral fellows of the State Key Laboratory and have participated in several bioengineering projects. Dr. Tianlan Chen has many years of experience in the development of digital microfluidic control systems and digital microfluidic chips, as well as the development of rapid DNA detection methods based on microchips. Dr. Dong Cheng has many years of experience in software, algorithm and embedded system development, and has participated in the research and development of a bank data system. In addition, Digifrees has experienced members in hardware R&D, quality system management, and R&D conversion.
Based on an excellent team, Digifree's innovation and R&D capabilities are outstanding. Currently, Digifree is developing the second generation of chips, hoping to achieve miniaturization and portability. In addition, Digifree’s outstanding capabilities have also been recognized by capital and medical companies. On the evening of November 19th, Hengji Daxin (002492) issued an announcement: The company’s subsidiary Hengtou Ventures and Digifree signed the "Intent Agreement on Investment Cooperation" ", to provide production services for the digital microfluidic technology chip and other projects owned by Digifluidic to reach a cooperation intention. At present, Digifree is carrying out a new round of financing, which is planned to be used for product research and development. In the next step, Digifree will optimize production technology, expand GMP plants, increase output, and actively obtain medical device registration certificates to accelerate product launches. In addition, Digifree will expand the pet testing market.
Source of this article: Arterial Network