Gentel Biosciences, a provider of animal health research products, announces an agreement with Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) to license viral antigens for use in Gentel's Colony Surveillance Assays (CSA).

Gentel licensed the viral antigens from OHSU for worldwide commercial use. These antigens were developed at the molecular virology core at OHSU's Oregon National Primate Research Centre in Beaverton, Ore. The agreement was completed on August 9, 2011.

According to Dan Clutter, Gentel's vice president of commercial development, “Gentel is committed to providing simple, low cost multiplex assays that allow researchers to maintain better colony health and thus obtain more meaningful data from their research. OHSU is a highly respected institution and incorporating their viral antigens into Gentel's CSA: Simian products enables us to offer a more valuable tool for non-human primate colony surveillance.”

The addition of the viral antigens to the Colony Surveillance Assay product line complements Gentel's initiatives to grow its line of products to support translational research disease models. This strategy includes the addition the OHSU antigens to an expanded panel which covers additional opportunistic pathogens set to launch in early Fall 2011. The CSA: Simian Basic and the CSA: Simian Expanded products provide the foundation for Gentel's growing animal health research product line that enables exceptional diagnostic accuracy for serological screening of Non-Human Primates (NHP).

NHP models for disease are a critical component of translational research for disease models like HIV, an important model system for the human immune system and are often used in vaccine studies. Maintaining SPF status for these types of animal models is crucial to sustain the integrity of the study and prevent confounding results due to latent or opportunistic infections.

Gentel launched its product line supporting laboratory animal health in 2010 for non-human primates with its CSA: Simian Basic panel which includes 6 infectious agents monitored in SPF primates. The CSA: Simian Expanded panel includes the viral antigens from the ONPRC and covers an additional 5 infectious agents, for a total of 11 tests in one assay. The CSA products use the Gentel Proteomics Multi-System, a complete analysis platform that integrates data capture and analysis at a price that is comparable to that of a bench-top ELISA system.

“Our main goal is to allow colony managers to get the lowest false positive/negative rates, in hours and at a significantly lower cost. Our second goal is to offer a broad enough selection of products that we can serve every NHP colony in the world. Working with OHSU helps us reach these goals,” said Alex Vodenlich, Gentel president and CEO.

Moving discoveries made in the lab into the marketplace is one of OHSU's core missions. “OHSU has adopted the 'technology transfer 3.0' model where we treat each interaction as the start of a long-term relationship. We feel that this approach potentially benefits the company, the university and the faculty by creating a mechanism for long-term collaborations,” said Arundeep S Pradhan, associate vice president for technology transfer and business development at OHSU.

In the case of the Gentel licensing agreement, the product that is the end result of the commercialization effort will also help to advance research at OHSU, said Nancy Haigwood, PhD, director of the Oregon National Primate Research Centre. “Having access to quick and reliable assays that are more affordable will positively impact the health of our colony and our research.”

Gentel delivers cost-effective, easy-to-use and reliable products to support laboratory animal health. These research products are designed to work with the Gentel Proteomics Multi-System (GPM), an all-in-one instrument for data capture and analysis.

Oregon Health & Science University is the state's only health and research university, and only academic health centre.