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| Image created by Dr. Michael J. Miller |
The Natural History Museum, London and Earlham Institute, Norwich today announce a joint venture spin-out company Agnos Biosciences™ (the first of its kind in the Museum’s history). The Agnos Biosciences™ team developed the AirSeq™ technology which provides rapid detection of airborne pathogens, transforming capabilities for early pathogen detection.
This new technology is a method for characterising biological particles in the air using a combination of novel molecular biology, DNA sequencing and bespoke computational analysis. With a low false positive rate, it can be used to quantify the presence of bacteria, viruses, fungi, pollen or any other biological material. Unlike alternatives, AirSeq™ is unbiased, is not targeted to specific pathogens and can detect multiple (1000s) species.
Culminating years of scientific research and development funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and other public and philanthropic funding bodies in the UK and US, the AirSeq™ technology has a range of potential applications with proven results in environmental monitoring, agricultural pathogen detection, food manufacturing pathogen detection and monitoring - and biological threat detection following extensive research with the US DARPA (United States’ Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency).
Natural History Museum Research Leader and Agnos Biosciences’ Co-Founder and CSO Professor Matt Clark says: “AirSeq is the culmination of many years of research. We are very excited about how fast and accurate it is at detecting pathogens or indeed any organism via their DNA – identifying them in the air enables early, critical interventions hopefully preventing infections and pandemics taking hold.”
Earlham Institute Group Leader and Agnos Biosciences Co-Founder and CTO Dr Richard Leggett says: “I'm delighted to launch AirSeq as a service after so many years of research and development. This is an exciting opportunity to use this technology to help new customers with different applications, as well as develop AirSeq's continued use in agriculture, the wider food industry and in biosecurity.”
The Earlham Institute and Natural History Museum are licensing AirSeq technology to Agnos Biosciences™ which will enable the spinout to offer it as an end-to-end commercial service. The service includes air sampling, lab-based DNA extraction and sequencing, as well as bioinformatics analysis and web-based visualisation of results.
With the core technology (patented novel molecular biology methods and bioinformatics platform) prototyped, tried and tested, AirSeq™ is already being used by customers in the UK.
Natural History Museum Entrepreneur in Residence and Agnos Biosciences Co-Founder and CEO Simon Kim says: “We are excited to launch our dual-use venture Agnos Biosciences™, with its civil and defence applications. Our innovative AirSeq™ technology tackles a growing global health issue, the spread of pathogens and biological threats. With clients in agriculture, food manufacturing and academic research and applications in biosecurity and biopharma development it has clean room applications, even potentially in space!”
The dual-use spinout Agnos Biosciences™ is the first venture to launch from the Museum’s Strategy and Innovation Unit created in 2023 and is one of the first of its kind in the UK’s Culture sector.
Natural History Museum Director of Strategy and Innovation Bethan Parry says: “To create positive impact for the planet, society, and the economy, we need the research of the Natural History Museum’s 400 scientists to be used at scale. We have a number of exciting projects and patents in progress which include innovations around the way we extract the minerals needed to support the green economy through to new dyes and nutraceuticals which can replace toxic chemicals with natural alternatives that offer health benefits.”
At the Earlham Institute, scientists have contributed over a decade of research to AirSeq technology. Dr Liliya Serazetdinova, Head of Business Development and Impact at the Earlham Institute, says: “Agnos Biosciences is our second spinout company at the Earlham Institute; we truly believe in the importance of translating our cutting-edge science into real-world applications. It enables so many more lives to be transformed and we are delighted to work with the Natural History Museum on this joint venture.’’