Adelaide expertise creates Trajan devices to allow micro blood samples to be taken simply and at home
Trajan Nutrition chief executive officer Marco Baccanti and Adelaide University professor of functional food science Robert Gibson. At right: The Trajan blood micro sampling devices (the hemaPEN and blood-spot technology) being developed in Adelaide.
A blood micro-sampling device, created in Adelaide, was given the OK in 2020 to be released in European and British markets.
Trajan Scientific and Medical’s hemaPEN allows blood samples to be more easily and accurately taken in the home. It was developed with Adelaide University and the University of Tasmania, The hemaPEN’s adoption in medical treatment and monitoring would remove the need for travel, reduce pressure on healthcare workers, and eliminate expensive cold-chain logistics.
Dr Anne Collins,Trajan’s Adelaide-based business unit general manager, said the device also could eliminate the need for at-risk individuals to travel to hospitals, surgeries or other centres for blood tests. Instead, they could collect and store four dried blood spot samples at home and send them for testing. The hemaPEN device could collect a precise fixed micro volume to maintain sample integrity for analysis. It also could support continued blood monitoring for people in forced isolation.
The approved compliance with the European Union and the UK follows the hemaPEN’s addition to the Australian register of therapeutic goods as a Class 1 IVD device. Trajan’s chief executive officer Stephen Tomisich said this was the tipping point for remote micro-sampling: “Alongside e-health consultations and e-prescription, we are moving to more remote healthcare.” The Trajan team in South Australia would develop the device, to be made in Melbourne.
The Adelaide-based Trajan Nutrition arm of the business is marketing its own new blood spot technology that eliminate costly and time-consuming vial nutrition blood testing with a simple blood prick.
Melbourne-based Trajan Scientific and Medical started the joint venture with Trajan Nutrition chief executive officer Professor Marco Baccanti and Professor Gibson in 2017 to test the technology in the Australian market. “We are one of the leading labs now at developing the new dry blood spot tests for a variety of nutrients and compounds,” Gibson said.
Baccanti was previously chief executive of the state’s Health Industries SA, developing the life sciences sector. In his four years, Baccanti oversaw 23 companies started with more than 600 direct jobs, clinical research investments from 10 overseas biotech companies and many university-industry ventures.
He said the new blood spot testing kits would meet growing demand around the world for blood tests to move from hospitals and dedicated blood test sites to homes: “This type of need is global and it has started with an invention and solution at SAHMRI (South Australian Medical and Health Research Institute) for nutrition testing.”