Magnetics Business & Technology - September/October 2019 - 14

FEATURE ARTICLE

Barcoded Magnetic Beads and New Diagnostic Systems Revolutionize Battle
Against Infectious Disease
for the universal extraction of RNA and
DNA. Based in Marcy l'Etoile, France,
the company has been a world leader
in the field of in vitro diagnostics for
over 55 years and had 2018 revenues
of 2.4 billion Euro with 90% of its sales
outside of France. Its products are
mainly used for diagnosing infectious
Nuclisens 96 easyMAG
diseases and some critical illnesses.
Its diagnostic solutions are also used
for detecting microorganisms in agrifood, pharmaceutical and cosmetic products.

Barcoded magnetic beads
Barcoded magnetic beads the size of a human hair are revolutionizing the battle against infectious diseases as medical technology companies rapidly expand their capability to use magnetic
particles in new equipment and diagnostic techniques.
At the heart of the innovative activity is Applied Biocode, a
company based in Santa Fe Springs, CA, whose pioneering
advancements in applying barcodes to magnetic particles are
spreading across an ecosystem of major global medical and
laboratory equipment companies that are forging ahead with new
solutions to harness and commercialize the technology.
In June, Biocode received clearance
from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration for the use of its high-throughput
MDx-3000 system and its Gastrointestinal Pathogen Panel to be used alongside Roche's highly automated MagNA
Pure 96 extraction system. The Roche
system can extract DNA/RNA from up
to 96 patient samples in approximately
60 minutes. Now, with the addition of
the Roche system, BioCode will have
access to higher volume laboratories
that utilize the Roche system for sample
extraction. The combination of the
BioCode and Roche systems will allow
laboratories to easily process up to 188
patient samples in a single, 8-hour shift.
It was the second recent approval allowing the match-up of Biocode's products
to a line of highly automated laboratory equipment used in high-volume
laboratories. Earlier, it obtained a similar
FDA clearance for being used with the
Nuclisens easyMAG extraction system
of French medical equipment company
bioMerieux.

The beads are highly stable and demonstrate low, non-specific
binding characteristics in biological assays, reports the company.
It currently offers four different functionalized versions.
Carboxyl beads enable covalent attachment of nucleic acids, and
other ligands on the bead surface. They permit probes and specific primers to bind to the bead surface via amino-modified termini. P-Carboxyl beads enable covalent attachment of proteins,
peptides, and other ligands. They enable proteins to bind to the
bead surface covalently via amino groups. Amino beads enable
covalent attachment of proteins, peptides, and other ligands with
the characteristics of high stability and low non-specific binding.
Amino beads enable proteins to bind to the bead surface covalently via carboxyl groups. The fourth version, Streptavidin beads
are designed for high affinity binding to biotinylated molecules
enabling rapid assay development for a variety of applications.

BioCode MDx-3000
System

Roche MagNA 96

The Nuclisens easyMAG from bioMerieux is a laboratory platform specifically optimized for total nucleic acid extraction from
biological samples. The system automates an enhanced magnetic silica version of bioMérieux's proprietary BOOM technology

The integrated systems all revolve around Biocode's barcoded
magnetic bead technology which offers up to 4,096 barcoded
patterns. The company has combined "digital barcodes" with
immunochemistry and molecular probes to create a new, bioinspired barcoded magnetic beads (BMB) technology. The microscale BMB, with a diameter of human hair, is tagged with immunochemistry or molecular probes, allowing the digital barcode
to be easily scanned and accurately identified for a breakthrough
number of biological targets with no ambiguity.

BMBs are formed by biocompatible polymer with paramagnetic
material composite. The polymer enables highly stable surface
chemistry while paramagnetic material exhibits magnetic properties when an external magnetic field is applied. This allows for
easy washing and separation. Each 70 x 25 x 6 µm bead contains one of 4,096 possible digital barcodes that can be readily
identified through bright field imaging.
A diverse range of bioassay applications can be explored using
BMB with the BioCode 2500 Analyzer. In microplate assays,
each microwell can hold hundreds of BMBs. Numerous beads
with different barcodes may be placed in each well for multiplex
testing. BMB are standard packaged in 1.5 mL tubes that each
contains a unique bead code.
As a company, Biocode focuses its products on the molecular
infectious disease segment of the market with assays that detect
pathogens for gastrointestinal infections, respiratory infections

Magnetics Business & Technology * September/October 2019

www.MagneticsMag.com

http://www.MagneticsMag.com

Magnetics Business & Technology - September/October 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Magnetics Business & Technology - September/October 2019