TECHLAB to utilize Dynex's Gold SmartKit packaging for ELISA product line

Dynex Technologies, Inc. announced today it has finalized a supply agreement with TECHLAB®, Inc. (Blacksburg, VA), allowing TECHLAB to utilize Dynex's Gold SmartKit™ packaging for their ELISA product line. TECHLAB, Inc. develops, manufactures, and distributes ELISA and rapid non-invasive intestinal diagnostics in the areas of intestinal inflammation, antibiotic associated diarrhea and parasitology. This agreement now allows TECHLAB to use the Dynex Gold SmartKit concept, creating enhanced ease-of-use, time and cost savings with compatible automated ELISA processors, including the new Dynex Agility™ microplate automation system.    

Gold SmartKit ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) kit packaging is a simple, direct-load solution to front-end preparation that reduces technician time and the potential for costly data entry errors, enhancing the product offerings of ELISA reagent kit manufacturers. Gold SmartKit packaging includes four main components: the consumable bottles of a reagent manufacturers' ELISA kit, a 2D barcode with lot-specific assay information, a carrier for holding reagent bottles, and a cap holder for reagent bottle caps. Once caps are removed and stored in the cap holder, the Gold SmartKit is placed directly into a compatible open system for testing.

Agility is a new fully automated ELISA microplate testing system manufactured by Dynex. State-of-the-art robotic processing delivers unparalleled precision while eliminating nearly all manual steps. Agility allows up to 16 SmartKits to be stored on the instrument and up to 12 different full-plate assays to be processed within its flexible worklist scheduler.

Dynex developed the SmartKit packaging format for use with compatible open ELISA systems, including Agility. SmartKit inserts are available in Gold, Silver, and Bronze formats to provide a choice of options and value. Duane M. Steele, Dynex's Vice President of Sales and Marketing, said "TECHLAB has elected to use the SmartKit Gold format, which provides the highest level of quality assurance and ease-of-use in the ELISA market. ELISA customers that use these TECHLAB ELISA Gold SmartKits in their laboratories will realize higher throughput, efficiency and reliability and will experience a new level of value and convenience."

TECHLAB ELISA products that utilize the SmartKit Gold format will be delivered to customers as pre-packaged reagent kits that contain all consumables required to perform ELISA tests, preloaded into the Gold format insert. This novel packaging allows the TECHLAB ELISA kits to be loaded directly onto compatible instruments in one easy step. The two-dimensional barcode allows the instrument to instantly identify the kit, assay protocol and all lot-specific information, eliminating the need to enter this information manually.

"Eliminating most of the manual labor for assay setup, combined with high-throughput automation, significantly reduces per-test cost and enables laboratories to obtain results faster than possible with manual assay procedures and most current automated ELISA protocols," said Steele.

Charlie Pennington, TECHLAB President, said "We are pleased to partner with Dynex and provide TECHLAB ELISA products in the Gold SmartKit format. This new format will enable our global ELISA customers to efficiently run more diagnostic tests with ease of use. TECHLAB ELISA products can continue to be run manually or with other open automation platforms. I believe laboratories will appreciate the value and savings when TECHLAB ELISA kits are run on the Dynex Agility in the SmartKit Gold format."

TECHLAB plans to begin offering TECHLAB ELISA products in SmartKit format in the 1st quarter of 2013 through their distribution partner Alere.