Christine Aleski

MATRIX MicroScience was established in August 2000, with a market focus on the development of rapid microbiological tests for the food industry and more recently expanded into the environmental and bio-threat sectors. Current testing methods for the detection of micro-organisms in food are labor intensive and slow, typically taking up to 5 days to obtain a result. For many food types, such as fresh produce and beef, this is of little use. In response to market demand, MATRIX has developed a novel patented system called PATHATRIX. Using RIMS (re-circulating immuno-magnetic separation) technology, PATHATRIX can specifically purify and detect pathogens directly from complex food matrices within hours. For priority cases, the PATHATRIX can be coupled with rapid detection systems to produce a result in as little as 5 hours from point of sample. PATHATRIX employs proven technology at its core that can easily be adopted in any microbiology laboratory, with a minimum of training. Unlike other rapid methods, viable cultures are produced which enable full and detailed analysis of any positive result to be carried out without any further manipulation. PATHATRIX can be used to enhance the performance and reduce the number of 'false positives' of other rapid methods such as PCR, ELISA, chromomeric media etc., and by significantly reducing or eliminating the need for lengthy enrichment and/or selective enrichment steps. The highly innovative Pathatrix Pooling, AOAC-RI approved protocol, provides the customer with dramatic (5x) increase in sample throughput and very significant (>60%) reduction in analysis costs and labor. Sample integrity is maintained 100% enabling the rapid positive identification of individual samples. Linked to rapid methods it provides real-time microbiology for faster product release and incident investigation. Pathatrix has been successfully deployed in real life Salmonella and E.coli O157 outbreaks from contaminated food and has enables food companies and regulatory authorities to rapidly identify the source of contamination.