European Commission Framework 7 programme awards €3 million grant to Enigma Diagnostics

In October 2007, Enigma Diagnostics (Porton Down, UK & San Diego, USA) announced the award of a euro 3 Million grant by the European Commission Framework 7 programme. This EU Commission award was won in a competitive process and the grant was to support development of a rapid, fully automated molecular diagnostic system for Seasonal Influenza (circulating strains of Influenza types A & B) to be based on Enigma's concept ML (mini-laboratory) instrument system. The RANGER project started on 1st of July 2008 with a consortium of members. This was led by Enigma Diagnostics and included the UK Health Protection Agency (HPA) with responsibility for assay development, Sagentia (Harston, Cambridge, UK) supporting development of the Enigma® ML prototype system and Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health collecting samples for clinical trials. PERA administered the project on behalf of the consortium.

The concluding meeting of the RANGER consortium was held at Enigma's Oxford site on 30th June 2011 at which Enigma demonstrated the use of the Enigma® ML system from sample to result in less than 60 minutes, using a swab and running a Seasonal Influenza, real-time PCR assay.  

John McKinley, Chairman of Enigma Diagnostics, said, "Enigma and all of the RANGER consortium recognise the valuable contribution of the EU Commission in supporting the successful development of the Enigma® ML system. This has progressed from initial design concept to pre-clinical assessment of the Seasonal Influenza test at the HPA Porton Down laboratories earlier this year. The Enigma® ML system will now move to the commercialization stage during 2012."

The Enigma® ML system will be showcased at AACC (American Association for Clinical Chemistry) at stand116 from 26th to 28th July 2011.  

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 201569.