MBio Diagnostics announces two contracts for algae toxin test development

New tests on MBio’s HAB Toxin System to provide detection of multiple algal toxins for food and water safety applications

MBio Diagnostics has announced two contracts to develop new tests for algae toxins. These tests will expand the offerings available on MBio’s existing platform, the HAB Toxin System. 

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are increasing with warm temperatures and increased nutrient runoff into waterways. These blooms can produce toxins that pose a risk to food, humans, and animals. Fast, high sensitivity tests can identify danger early and help to build predictive models. Easy-to-use, portable equipment means that these tests can be easily and reliably executed.

The first award is from The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), part of the USDA, for the project, Rapid Multiplexed Detection of Algal Toxins in Shellfish and Seawater. Under this Phase II SBIR, MBio will develop three assays to measure toxins generated by HABs in saltwater for shellfish food safety. The toxins we will measure are saxitoxin, which causes paralytic shellfish poisoning, domoic acid, which can cause amnesic shellfish poisoning, and okadaic acid, which can cause diarrhetic shellfish poisoning. MBio will also develop high sensitivity assays that can be used to measure these toxins directly in seawater.  In Phase I, we demonstrated unprecedented sensitivity that can assist with forecasting shellfish bed closures, and HABs.

The second award is from the Monitoring and Event Response for Harmful Algal Blooms (MERHAB), part of the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA). This project involves a network of researchers, water utilities, and boat captains who are interested in monitoring microcystin and cylindrospermopsin in Lake Erie.  The collaboration will deploy the MBio HAB Toxin System to twelve different sites around Lake Erie, leading to a network of data that can be used for HAB forecasting models. Timothy Davis, Ph.D. and his team at Bowling Green State University are part of this collaboration.

“I am very excited to see the MBio HAB Toxin System be used by Lake Erie water managers and citizen scientists to significantly expand our ability to track and report the toxin concentrations throughout the bloom in near real-time.  These data will help improve toxin concentration forecasting models, which will ultimately lead to a better ability to protect human health,” said Davis.

“MBio’s platform is ideal for monitoring these emerging threats to our drinking water and aquaculture,” said Mike Lochhead, MBio’s chief operating officer. “With a <15 minute workflow and ability to multiplex multiple analytes on a single test cartridge, these new algae tests will expand the current menu already available with our HAB Toxin System.”