Coupled with the Company’s unique expertise in microbiology, new technologies will make it possible to develop even faster and more effective diagnostic solutions with a direct impact on the quality of healthcare and industrial control. bioMérieux focuses its technological research in five key areas:
Because it is essential to accelerate time to results and optimize laboratory productivity, laboratory automation is a priority focus for bioMérieux. Beyond automating all the steps involved in diagnostics – from handling samples to interpreting results – bioMérieux strives to provide:
- enhanced support for decision-making by biologists,
- real-time data transmission to clinicians,
- remote access to data.
Our goal is to provide actionable, value-added information for clinicians. This is also important in industrial microbiological control, where rapid results are essential for manufacturing to run smoothly and for finished product batches to be released more quickly.
Thanks to imaging technology, the Smart Incubator System (SIS) transforms the Petri dish into a digital object and offers new features:
- complete traceability,
- reading at scales undetectable to the human eye,
- and real-time remote access to data via the Myla® middleware.
Myla is a fundamental part of bioMérieux’s FMLA® (Full Microbiology Lab Automation) solutions and services. This innovative microbiology middleware solution offers:
- An interface that enables the consolidation of microbial identification and antibiotic susceptibility (ID/AST) test results,
- Workflow optimization,
- Information management.
Following the first three versions already deployed in microbiology laboratories, development for new versions is focused on:
- The integration of the SIS and PREVI® Isola systems into the Myla interface for better workflow management,
- The automatic generation of statistical and epidemiological reports on the evolution of bacterial resistance to antibiotics,
- The creation of indicators measuring the time taken to perform the different steps of analyses to help laboratory directors rationalize their processes.
- VITEK® MS, for the identification of bacteria and yeast using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry technology, came on stream in 2011.
- This new identification solution is fully integrated with bioMérieux’s VITEK® platform, the world’s leading system for identification and automated antibiotic susceptibility testing, via the Myla middleware.
- bioMérieux is pursuing research programs, in particular with the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), to prepare new generations of solutions based on mass spectrometry.
Genome sequencing is progressing at a rapid pace and its costs are dropping significantly.
- bioMérieux is studying the feasibility of a platform based on sequencing technology, with interesting potential applications in infectious disease diagnostics.
- This is a highly complex field where bioMérieux will benefit from partnerships such as the one signed in 2010 with the American company, Knome.
- November 18, 2014 bioMérieux and Illumina, a world leader in genomics, announced they have signed an exclusive agreement to launch a next-generation sequencing (NGS) epidemiology solution for service labs. The two companies will jointly develop applications for microbiology sequencing technologies within a four-year renewable period. Find out more...
- bioMérieux continues to explore new technological and biological avenues to reduce the time required for culturing microorganisms, or even avoid this step altogether, which would make it possible to identify and potentially predict bacterial resistance in the space of a few hours.
- These new ultra rapid microbiology techniques would be especially valuable in emergency situations.
bioMérieux can capitalize on the Company’s extensive knowledge of infectious diseases and use information technologies to create new solutions.
- Information about pathogens can be combined with information about diseases, treatments and epidemiology, as well as data specific to each individual patient (their medical history, clinical status and, ultimately, genome).
- By compiling all these data and making use of increased connectivity, it will be possible to develop new services with higher medical value.