Mawi iSWAB Microbiome-EL Enables Prime Discoveries’ Development of Rapid Extraction-Less COVID Diagnostic Assay
25.4.2022 16:00:00 EEST | Business Wire | Press release
Mawi DNA Technologies (Mawi), a biotechnology company focusing on the development of innovative technologies for biosampling, announces that Prime Discoveries has successfully developed CovidDetect™, a rapid isothermal amplification diagnostic assay for detecting SARS-CoV-2. Without the need for RNA extraction and purification, the sample result occurs in less than 30 minutes. The assay uses Mawi’s new iSWAB Microbiome-EL (Extraction-Less) sample collection technology. This allows RNA release from the sample and maintains stability, protecting it from degradation and allowing room temperature storage and transport.
Prime Discoveries recently received CE IVD marking for CovidDetect™ and plans to pursue FDA 510K approval soon. Clinical results from Prime CovidDetect™ has been peer reviewed and recently published in PLOS ONE under “A Rapid, Specific, Extraction-Less, and Cost-Effective RT-LAMP Test for the Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in Clinical Specimens.” The CE marking allows deployment of a solution to countries in Africa and Asia where rapid, inexpensive diagnostics for various infections with minimal technical expertise and equipment infrastructure is highly required.
Prime CovidDetect™ leverages Mawi’s unique iSWAB Microbiome-EL sample collection buffer with Prime Discoveries’ patented Loop AMPlification (LAMP) technology. This allows isothermal nucleic acid amplification removing the need for expensive thermal cycling equipment required for PCR. The Extraction-Less protocol bypasses the expensive and complex nucleic acid extraction and purification step, saving 60-90 minutes of sample processing time needed for PCR.
Arun Manoharan, Ph.D., Chief Science Officer at Prime Discoveries, said, “The COVID pandemic has shown that there is a big need for rapid diagnostic assays. Prime Discoveries aims to build a portfolio of solutions which can provide results in under 45 minutes with minimal laboratory, reagent and technical skill requirements. This is ideal for point of care testing in rural neighborhoods, mobile testing, border points of entry and clinical locations with minimal infrastructure. Our work with COVID has shown stable performance of the Mawi iSWAB Microbiome-EL for hundreds of clinical samples with similar or superior performance to RT-PCR solutions. Samples have been stable for more than two weeks with minimal RNA degradation along with high compatibility with our isothermal nucleic acid amplification techniques.” He added, “Our partnership with Mawi enables Prime Discoveries to develop room temperature sampling with Extraction-Less capabilities for our rapid diagnostic solutions in many areas. These include influenza, chlamydia, gonorrhea, trichomonas, HBV, HCV, HPV, TB, herpes, syphilis, etc. We are excited to partner with Mawi for future products empowering customers to test thousands of patients rapidly for various infections including respiratory, gastrointestinal, sexually transmitted pathogens and those with anti-microbial resistance.”
About Prime Discoveries
Prime Discoveries develops rapid, novel diagnostics for emerging pathogen infections with a focus on cost effective, massively scalable and easily automatable assays. Founded in NYC in 2017, Prime’s scientists have extensive backgrounds in microbiology, computational biology, lab automation and AI from Genentech, Cooper Genomics, Recombine, Phosphorus, and NYU. Prime is advised by leading experts in the fields of genomics and public health including Dr. George Church and New York University. Prime is supported by academic institutions, venture capital firms and angel investors including New York University, Charles Zegar (Bloomberg), Esther Dyson (23 & Me), BoxGroup, Akron Fusion Ventures, Beresford Ventures, Cannonball Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures, Francois Nader (Moderna, Acceleron, Shire), Unshackled Ventures, Doberman Forward, and others. For more information, visit www.primediscoveries.com.
About Mawi DNA Technologies
Mawi DNA Technologies, founded in 2013, has developed and commercialized the iSWAB technology, an innovative system for collection of biosamples. Mawi’s mission is to uphold sample integrity from anywhere in the world at room temperature, enabling true sample diversity across any geography or population segment. At Mawi, The Future of Biosampling is Here™. For more information, visit http://www.mawidna.com.
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220425005323/en/
Contact information
Investors:
Jerome David, VP of Sales and Marketing
510-256-5186, j.david@mawidna.com
Media Contact:
Susan Tellem, APR, RN, BSN
310-313-3444, susan@tellemgrodypr.com
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
New Pivotal Study Data Show Takeda’s Oveporexton Improved Daily Function, Cognition and Nighttime Sleep for People with Narcolepsy Type 115.6.2026 19:00:00 EEST | Press release
Takeda (TSE:4502/NYSE:TAK)today presented additional results from two pivotal studies at SLEEP 2026, showing oveporexton (TAK-861), an oral orexin receptor 2 (OX2R)-selective agonist, improved daily functioning as well as cognitive and sleep-related symptoms associated with narcolepsy type 1 (NT1).1,2,3 Oveporexton is designed to address the underlying orexin deficiency that causes NT1 by restoring orexin signaling. These data, along with previously disclosed Phase 3 results, demonstrated improvement across the broad disease spectrum, supporting the potential of oveporexton to redefine the standard of care for NT1.4 "Narcolepsy type 1 is a 24-hour disease driven by orexin deficiency, and while excessive daytime sleepiness and cataplexy are the most recognized symptoms, many people experience additional bothersome symptoms such as cognitive difficulties and disrupted nighttime sleep," said Emmanuel Mignot, M.D., Ph.D., principal investigator for the FirstLight (TAK-861-3001) Phase 3 stu
Boomi Named a Pioneer in June 2026 Gartner® Emerging Market Quadrant for No-Code Agent Builders15.6.2026 18:30:00 EEST | Press release
Boomi, the data activation company for AI, today announced it has been recognized as aPioneer in the Gartner® Emerging Market Quadrant for No-Code Agent Builders (NCAB). Gartner defines the NCABs market as SaaS-delivered products that offer an integrated design and runtime environment to build, publish and manage AI-powered agents without using coding. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260615413216/en/ Boomi Named a Pioneer in June 2026 Gartner® Emerging Market Quadrant for No-Code Agent Builders Boomi sees this recognition as a reflection of the company's rapid evolution from an integration and automation powerhouse to a full-scale agentic infrastructure platform, expanding Boomi’s role in the emerging agentic AI market. A New Chapter in Enterprise Agentic AI According to Gartner, vendors recognized as a Pioneer in this quadrant have established themselves in enterprises for integration and automation workloads
Actiphy Inc. Unveils Actiphy ImageReplicator™15.6.2026 18:00:00 EEST | Press release
Actiphy Inc., a leading provider of backup, disaster recovery, and virtualization software, today announced the release of Actiphy ImageReplicator, a dedicated replication solution for ActiveImage Protector backup images. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260615886945/en/ Actiphy ImageReplicator dashboard displaying centralized replication management, job status, replication history, and retention monitoring across protected backup images. As ransomware attacks, cyber threats, and infrastructure failures continue to grow in frequency and sophistication, organizations need reliable ways to protect backup data from loss, corruption, and unauthorized access. When primary systems are compromised, backup data becomes the final line of defense for maintaining business continuity and ensuring rapid recovery. Organizations increasingly rely on 3-2-1 backup strategies that include offsite and immutable copies of critical
Energy Dome and SRP to Add Long-Duration Energy Storage Project to the Grid, Expand Google Collaboration15.6.2026 16:30:00 EEST | Press release
Energy Dome, a leading provider of innovative capacity solutions for utilities and AI infrastructure, and Salt River Project (SRP), a not-for-profit public power utility serving the greater Phoenix metropolitan area, today announced an agreement to add a 19 megawatt (MW), 10-hour carbon dioxide-based (CO2) battery system to the grid. The project is planned to be co-located on the site of SRP’s Coronado Generating Station (CGS) in St. Johns, Arizona, and it will be developed under a 20-year tolling agreement, with Energy Dome owning and operating the facility and SRP dispatching its output. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260615027901/en/ Image: Rendering of Energy Dome’s energy storage system located at the Coronado Generating Station site The project is also part of Google and SRP’s innovative collaboration to accelerate deployment of non-lithium-ion long-duration energy storage (LDES) technologies that suppo
SLB Launches Digital Marketplace to Scale AI and Digital Innovation Across Energy15.6.2026 15:15:00 EEST | Press release
Global energy technology company SLB (NYSE: SLB) today announced the launch of the SLB Digital Marketplace, a curated digital destination designed to help energy companies rapidly discover and deploy specialized AI agents, domain models, skills, tools, data connectors and digital applications within their existing digital environments. The SLB Digital Marketplace extends the company’s open platform strategy to its Tela™ agentic AI assistant by enabling SLB, partners, independent software vendors (ISVs), developers and customers to bring purpose-built digital capabilities to the energy industry through a single, governed channel. All marketplace offerings are certified against SLB standards for security, interoperability and compatibility before listing. The launch comes as the industry moves toward agentic AI — where software can reason, act and automate across complex technical workflows. As these capabilities proliferate, energy companies will need access to a broader ecosystem of sp
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom