The INNOVA Attobench System

The INNOVA Attobench System is a benchtop instrument designed for use at point-of-care in clinics, hospitals, labs and pharmacies. It aims to profile patient blood in 7 minutes and with a small 10 µL sample, providing not just yes/no for a single biomarker but a quantified result for a panel of markers. In short, it allows the person’s clinical condition to be treated more precisely and systematically.

The technology is adaptable and can perform a different rapid, multiplexed biomarker test each day, depending on the test chip inserted. In the near future, the instrument will be able to perform not only tests for COVID-19 immunity, but also for liver function testing, for allergy screening, or for fertility monitoring, to name but a few, allowing users either to use multiple instruments every day or to use a single device with specific testing assigned to a day, according to the needs and patient throughput.

The technology behind: SPR (surface-plasmon resonance)

The benchtop uses a label-free particle plasmon resonance multiplexed array functionalised with capture molecules that provide analytical specificity to the target analyte. Thus target protein concentrations can be quantitatively measured from a 10 µL blood sample in 7 minutes (for up to 20 biomarkers).

The array incorporates gold nanoparticles illuminated in total-internal-reflection which is monitored in real time by a video camera. The spots are functionalised with proteins that provide the specificity for the target assays, as well as appropriate control spots and calibrated materials to provide a quantitative result in mg/L.

The Test Menu

The INNOVA CovDImmune Test is currently available. Additional panels will be launched in the months to come so please check back regularly or get in touch so that we can notify you when new panels are released.

FAQ

The technology has been calibrated based on the NISTmAb antibody, which is a reference sample very well characterized in terms of concentration and mass. 

The INNOVA Attobench System is based on the SPR technology that has been used successfully since decades; the INNOVA Attobench System being the result of more than a dozen years of research at the University of Exeter.

As for the INNOVA CovDImmune test, more information on science behind the test can be found in the publications below, the most recent are on pre-print servers. Other peer-reviewed articles are available upon request.

Fully Quantitative Measurements of Differential Antibody Binding to Spike Proteins from Wuhan, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Omicron BA.1 variants of SARS-CoV-2: Antibody Immunity Endotypes. Philip H. James-Pemberton, Shivali Kohli, Jordan Twynham, Aaron C. Westlake, Alex Antill, Jade Hunt, Rouslan V. Olkhov, Andrew M. Shaw. Sep 2022 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.23.22280271v1.fulltext

Vaccine, Booster and Natural Antibody Binding to SARS-CoV-2 Omicron (BA.1) Spike Protein and Vaccine Efficacy. Philip H James-Pemberton, Mark W Helliwell, Rouslan V Olkhov, Shivali Kohli, Aaron C Westlake, Benjamin M Farrar, Ben J Sutton, Nicholas D Ager and Andrew M Shaw medRxiv. July 2022, 10.1101/2022.07.12.22277539 http://medrxiv.org/content/early/2022/07/15/2022.07.12.22277539

Fully Quantitative Measurements of the Antibody Levels for SARS-CoV-2 Infections and Vaccinations calibrated against the NISTmAb Standard IgG Antibody. Philip H James-Pemberton, Mark W Helliwell, Rouslan V Olkhov, Shivali Kohli, Aaron C Westlake, Benjamin M Farrar and Andrew Shaw medRxiv. July 2022, 10.1101/2022.07.12.22277533 http://medrxiv.org/content/early/2022/07/15/2022.07.12.22277533

Real-world evaluation of a novel technology for quantitative simultaneous antibody detection against multiple SARS-CoV-2 antigens in a cohort of patients presenting with COVID-19 syndrome. Analyst 2020, 145, 5638-5646

  • For S and SO, different methodologies were used (based on vaccine efficacy, on Youden index, on the nasal mucosa threshold hypothesis and on comparison with other vaccines for respiratory diseases). 
  • For N, the threshold was calculated through samples of PCR- patients pre-pandemic and PCR+ patients recovering from COVID-19 using the Youden index allowing identification of the threshold optimised for good specificity and sensitivity. 
  • For CRP, 20mg/L was used as a known threshold of the inflammation marker.

Days of immunity are measured using the results for Spike and Omicron Spike proteins, assuming a 60-day half-life, and a nasal mucosa threshold of 3.4mg/L, rounded to the nearest month. The half-life of antibodies can vary among individuals 60-200 days, therefore a 60-day half-life was chosen to underpredict rather than overpredict an estimated ‘edge of immunity’. If a more precise estimate of antibody half-life wants to be known, a repeat of the test can be performed a few months apart (assuming no change to vaccination or infection history within this timeframe).

As long as binding rates are similar and overall S2 epitope integrity is maintained, clinician briefs will be released explaining how to adjust days of immunity calculation without having to use a different test. The Edge of Immunity threshold is based on the Spike and Spike Omicron antibody thresholds due to the observation of a universal endotype that has protection to all variants, despite variation in RBD proteins. Furthermore, antibody binding to the target ACE2 receptor can be prevented by antibodies binding to regions other than the RBD region.

Nevertheless, should new variants change drastically in the future, and/or there is a significant change in the predicted nasal mucosa threshold, a new test with new variants and/or an updated threshold will be released and also go through the regulatory process.

The benchtop and the test are both powered by Attomarker’s science. Attomarker is a spin-out company from the University of Exeter, founded by Prof. Andrew Shaw.