Analytik Jena and SIRS-Lab Cooperate on Sepsis Diagnostics

Analytik Jena AG and SIRS-Lab GmbH will be strengthened by working together in the field of molecular sepsis diagnostics. As part of this cooperation, Analytik Jena subsidiary AJ Innuscreen GmbH will provide the partner with a platform for automated isolation of nucleic acids with the associated reagent system worth almost half a million euro.

“In the field of sepsis diagnostics, speed plays a vital role in identifying infections and detecting pathogens. Analytik Jena’s cooperation with SIRS-Lab offers great potential for the challenging area of diagnostics”, commented Klaus Berka, CEO of Analytik Jena AG.

SIRS-Lab is a Jena-based biotechnology company which develops and produces test systems for molecular diagnosis of life-threatening infections. SIRS-Lab is a member of the German Sepsis Society and works with many internationally recognized partners. One significant partner is the university hospital of the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, which in January 2010 received the green light from an international jury of experts to develop an integrated research and treatment center for sepsis and related illnesses. This development is focused primarily on enabling rapid and targeted antibiotic therapy for sepsis.

“Analytik Jena provides us with special reagents and instruments, tailored to our developments, for the fully automated extraction of DNA in whole blood samples. The clinical studies currently underway to validate the test should create the conditions to start marketing our sepsis diagnostics very soon”, explained Barbara Staehelin, CEO of SIRS-Lab GmbH.

Analytik Jena AG concentrates its biotechnological expertise in the Life Science division. Its service includes automated individual and complete solutions for molecular diagnostics. The wide range of products is made possible by synergies between Analytik Jena and its subsidiaries AJ Cy-bertron, AJ Innuscreen, AJ Roboscreen, AJ eBiochip, CyBio AG and Bio-metra GmbH. AJ Innuscreen, headquartered in Berlin, was founded in 2005 for the development and manufacture of kits for molecular diagnostics.