Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation has developed an automated platform technology for molecular diagnostic. The global market for molecular testing is growing rapidly at rate of 11 per cent annually, and is expected to grow from 4.0 billion US dollars in 2009 to more than 5.4 billion US dollars accounting for 10 per cent of worldwide In Vitro Diagnostic market in 2012. In Japan, use of molecular testing is on the rise to detect infectious diseases such as hepatitis, sexually transmitted diseases, and influenza.

Molecular testing, which uses nucleic acids extracted from human samples to detect and identify pathogen, provides high sensitivity over traditional testing methods, in particular the conventional immunological testing method. However, molecular test operation has not been processed efficiently since it requires complex and time-consuming manual procedures such as pre-analytical processing of samples, dissolution and mixing of reagents. Therefore there has been customers’ requirement for molecular diagnostic instrument that provides automation in eliminating complex, time-consuming, and labour-intensive procedures, which results in improving quality of tests.

In order to meet the customers’ requirement, Hitachi High-Technologies has developed molecular diagnostic platform technology that automates these complex procedures. The overarching concept for the platform is to provide a system compatible with various types of nucleic acids amplification protocols, realize sophisticated level of automation with random access function for different assays testing simultaneously, and continuous loading of samples, reagent and consumables like clinical chemistry analyzer. Random access and continuous loading functions will be at the mainstream of molecular diagnostic testing going forward, and are expected to contribute greatly to reduce both labour-intensive works and time to result under routine operation in hospital laboratories.