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Company News: Project Group ProDetekt at Life Science Inkubator (LSI) Sachsen receives maximum patent protection in Europe for PRET-ELISA key technology

– Significant performance and efficiency improvement of ELISA-based protein analytics

Dresden, Germany, March 15, 2018 – ProDetekt, a start-up project incubated at Life Science Inkubator Sachsen, has been granted broad European patent protection for its novel PRET-ELISA technology supplementing the ELISA method used in bioanalytics world-wide. ELISA (Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay) is being applied routinely in biomedical research and everyday clinical practice, e.g. to determine disease-relevant biomarkers in complex biological samples.

However, validated ELISA kits today are commercially available for only about 6% of all human proteins. For the determination of all other proteins researchers need to design their own assays from various reagents and components. The establishment, validation and optimization of these self-assembled kits is costly, time-consuming and does not always deliver the desired performance. The PRET technology developed by ProDetekt allows for a substantial expansion of the ELISA measuring range by about 2 to 3 orders of magnitude. As a result, establishing and validating ELISA-based protein analytics is becoming easier and more cost effective. Applications include new detection kits for disease research. Following the granting of the EU patent by the European Patent Office, the technology is now broadly protected in Europe.

ProDetekt originates from a Junior Research Group at the Chair of Bioanalytics located at the University of Leipzig’s Center for Biotechnology and Biomedicine (BBZ). The project was funded from 2007 to 2014 by the Innoprofile- and GO-Bio-Program of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Following the start of the incubation at LSI Sachsen in May 2016, the group conducted extensive research and development in close collaboration with LSI Sachsen and LSI’s patent attorneys to rapidly generate the necessary scientific data. The broad patent claims have now been fully accepted by the European Patent Office.

„Our strong research results were able to convince the patent examiners and now provide for a sound validation of our technology,” said Dr. Karin Büttner, a co-inventor and team member of ProDetekt.

„This milestone achieved in the incubation phase is a considerable success and an important prerequisite for founding our start-up company and attracting investors,” said Dr. Norman Gerstner, project leader of ProDetekt.