HistoryHow Single Molecule was born
The Regional Council of Puglia, through Resolution No. 218 of 21/02/2022, decided to enter into an Agreement between the Puglia Region, the University of Bari, and the University of Brescia for collaboration aimed at creating a “Center of Innovation in Single-Molecule Digital Assay.” The center aims to develop enabling platforms that can also be developed within the scope of topics of interest to the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) and the National Research Plan (PNR), such as precision medicine, neuroscience, chronic diseases, and pandemics.
The Center intends to carry out a research and development project that aligns with the trajectories outlined in the programmatic documents of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan and the National Research Plan 2021-2027, especially as envisaged by the Health Research Plan. The main focus is on ultra-performance devices for early diagnosis and remote patient monitoring.
State-of-the-art systems for doctors
The research project aims to create systems for the analysis of markers, as well as viruses and bacteria, capable of contributing to significant savings for the healthcare system. In fact, the technology proposed in the context of this project would provide doctors with the advantage of preemptively identifying individuals with progressive diseases through mass screening long before symptoms manifest.
The development of high-performance Point-of-Care (POC) technologies would also allow for the control of infectious diseases, thus countering their spread. Such a POC system offers considerable advantages in the implementation of home care for chronic patients, resulting in cost reduction for the national healthcare system in terms of both early therapeutic intervention and reduced hospitalizations.
Controlling infectious diseases
Disease control Recognition by the international scientific community
The international scientific community considers these issues of great interest for improving patient care and conditions worldwide. This is particularly relevant considering the impact on public healthcare management costs, not only due to lower expenses resulting from the shorter course of diseases treated in a timely manner but also in the context of home-hospital care, where patients are treated at home through remote monitoring systems.
The POC platform proposed by the DIGITAL ASSAY Center has the potential to meet all the REASSURED criteria defined by the World Health Organization (WHO). The acronym REASSURED has been adopted by WHO to characterize an ideal POC device, which should ideally have real-time connectivity, ease of sample collection, affordability, high sensitivity, selectivity, user-friendliness, speed, robustness, operability without laboratory equipment, and the ability to provide simple results to end-users.
A platform with all REASSURED criteria
