Lumos Leelu Reader & Analysis Software

Currently 80% of tests for infectious diseases, such as influenza, HIV, Chlamydia and Zika virus, involve taking patient samples, such as blood or saliva, and sending it to a laboratory for analysis by large instruments sensitive enough to detect the disease markers. This makes the tests expensive and can take days to get a result. While patients wait for their test results to return from labs, they may spread the disease or receive the wrong treatment. Our brief was to create a development tool for cost-effective diagnostic devices capable of detecting infectious diseases in clinics, GP offices or at home.

The Leelu Reader enables the development of a whole range of new, rapid low-cost tests, by allowing companies to develop highly sensitive diagnostic tests that can return results in minutes, not days, ultimately saving millions of lives and dollars. No other lateral-flow research instruments exist on the market that offer the equivalent level of sensitivity, low price point and compact size. By combining this sophisticated technology inside a highly attractive and simple product, the instrument is ideal for a wide range of research environments important when accessing biological samples needed in test development.

Leelu facilitates collaborations between research laboratories and public health systems to develop faster, more accurate lateral-flow tests and reader devices, including the development of low-cost point-of-care tests for resource-limited environments. Leelu has been instrumental in the development of diagnostic tests responding to new infectious diseases that emerge globally. It is designed to be readily deployed to scientists in times of medical emergencies, with the versatility to detect a wide range of biomarkers in patient samples for the identification of new diseases, facilitating the development of new tests and aiding efforts in controlling the spread of infectious diseases.

Most diagnostic companies target specific diseases, which means they carry a great deal of business risk on their single tests being successful. Leelu has been designed as a configurable research instrument that is applicable across many point-of-care applications, reducing this risk. This choice to not target one specific disease but provide a platform instrument that supports many, dramatically increases the chance of commercial success. Many point-of-care tests utilize cellulose-based strips with unique chemistry compositions that reveal a positive or negative result in the form of visible lines. Relying on the human eye to read results can be subjective and unreliable. Leelu removes the guess work and enables additional information to be obtained that is not possible when manually reading test strips by generating a quantitative result for each biomarker. This is important for identifying disease severity and/or monitoring patients over time. Leelu has also been designed to be a flexible system working across different point-of-care test formats, sizes and chemistries, overcoming the challenges of other reader devices. The software functionality provides the ability of time-lapse measurements, allowing our partners to iterate more quickly, reducing valuable development time.