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ReaX™ Custom Bead Service used for a novel
field-based DNA security marking
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Date 27 June 2007
Cardiff, UK – Q Chip Ltd, a leading developer of microencapsulation solutions,
announces a new collaboration with TraceTag™ UK to develop custom ReaX™ beads
for security marking and tracing of fuel. Developed in Q Chip’s Custom Bead
Synthesis laboratories in Cardiff, UK, the innovative gel-based ReaX beads will
encapsulate all the TraceTag reagents required to perform qPCR in a single dose.
Smuggling of fuel is a major problem in many parts of the world with varying tax
regimes in neighbouring countries providing an enormous incentive to smugglers.
TraceTag provides a state-of-art fuel marking and verification system by adding
covert DNA markers to the petroleum products. The markers are totally secure and
are invisible to the naked eye and cannot be replicated or removed commercially.
The customised ReaX ‘Lab-in-a-Bead’ tailored specifically to TraceTag’s system
is in a ready-to-use format, liberating the qPCR test from the traditional
laboratory environment with highly skilled technicians and allowing it to be
performed in the field using portable systems. Custom ReaX beads can be
manufactured with the primers of choice, any preferred Taq polymerase (including
Hot Start enzymes) and the desired fluorescent chemistry. This gives customers
complete flexibility compared to existing liquid or lyophilized reagents.
The ReaX beads standardise and streamline qPCR set-up and allow untrained
operators to set up complex and sensitive qPCR reactions in the field and still
obtain highly reproducible results.
The success of the TraceTag ReaX custom bead has the potential of obtaining
quick and extremely accurate results, verifying the origin and fiscal status of
the fuel in real time also allowing the authorities to resolve the legitimacy of
the fuel.
“This is a novel and exciting application for our ReaX custom bead which allows
DNA analysis to be performed successfully by non-experts in the field providing
valuable product verification” said Dr Nanette Bartram, Product Manager, “we are
also looking to apply customised ReaX bead technology to determine the product
provenance in other industries, such as food and cosmetics”.
www.q-chip.com
www.tracetag.com
- ENDS -
Editors’ notes
In 2004 Q Chip developed the world’s first fully-functioning MicroPlant™
platform for the production of commercial volumes of uniform, precisely-loaded
microcapsules using a wide range of biocompatible polymers.
Product enquiries
Q Chip Limited
Nanette Bartram, PhD +44 (0)29 2068 2092
Email: nanette.bartram@q-chip.com
Media enquiries
Alto Marketing Limited
David Robinson +44 (0)1489 557672
Email:
mailto:davidr@alto-marketing.com
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