"Our level of concern with the Zika Virus outbreak is extremely high," Dr. Gregory R. Chiklis, President and CEO of ZeptoMetrix, relayed to his Executive Team. "We need to support the molecular diagnostic industry with accurate, reliable and non-infectious tools to alleviate the level of uncertainty that exists. These molecular based assays are without a doubt the most sensitive and specific ways to identify and monitor a Zika Virus infection."
To complement its current Tropical Disease microorganism offerings, ZeptoMetrix has added 3 strains of Zika Virus for the development and verification of molecular diagnostic assays. These strains can be used to optimize test sensitivity. Other arboviruses from the ZeptoMetrix collection, such as Dengue Virus, Yellow Fever, and Chikungunya can be used to test that an assay is specific for the Zika Virus.
For clinical laboratory use, ZeptoMetrix has treated Zika Virus with its proprietary NATtrol™ inactivation process to manufacture non-infectious, molecular testing controls and an assay range validation panel. Together, these quality controls products can be utilized to verify test performance, track variations in results, follow lot-to-lot test kit reproducibility, monitor individual operator performance and determine aberrant long-term trends in laboratory results.