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Axela Expands Emergency Department Research Screening Study for Silent Brain Injury at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC

Posted on: Wednesday, 25 June 2008, 09:03 CDT

Axela Inc today announced plans to use the dotLab(R) System in a study of childhood brain injury at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. The dotLab System will be used as a research tool to screen high-risk infants for unsuspected brain injury in an emergency department (ED) setting. The project will study candidate biomarkers for shaken baby syndrome (SBS) and other types of brain injury.

Rachel Berger, MD, MPH, a pediatrician and researcher at the Child Advocacy Center at Children's Hospital, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and an associate director of the Safar Center for Resuscitation Research said, "The data we generated on Axela's dotLab System correlated strongly with results obtained as part of our previous studies using an ELISA. This platform continues to be the only system, to our knowledge, that has the capability of measuring serum biomarker concentrations in an ED setting." Berger added, "We are very encouraged with the continued improvement Axela has made to this assay. Axela's ability to incrementally add new markers to enhance the same consumable throughout the study will enable a valuable and needed testing format for the ED assessment of these small children."

This ongoing research is part of a grant proposal entitled, Novel Approaches to Screening for Inflicted Childhood Neurotrauma.

"Not only does our platform promise solutions to screen for childhood brain injury," said Rocky Ganske, President and CEO of Axela, "but the current test now takes less than 20 minutes to complete using less than two drops of blood - capabilities that will potentially open a new level of care and diagnostics to neonatal and pediatric patients around the world. Our test requires less time, labor, and analysis and is less cumbersome than current methods in an ED setting." Ganske added, "We are excited about the next phase of this trial of almost 1,000 children including the addition of new sites based on outcomes. We look forward to correlating this data with current imaging methods, and continuing to positively impact Dr. Berger's already significant body of research in silent brain injury."

Continued progress of this ED study further validates the company's business model and the strength of the technology, providing clinician scientists an accessible platform to research novel biomarkers of disease.

About the Safar Center for Resuscitation Research

The global mission of the Safar Center for Resuscitation Research is to improve understanding of the mechanism of secondary injury after trauma and cardiopulmonary arrest, from whatever cause, and to contribute to the development and implementation of novel therapies. The treatment and prevention of secondary injury after these life-threatening catastrophic events is a major goal in each venue of investigation.

About Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC

Renowned for its outstanding clinical services, research programs and medical education, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC has helped establish the standards of excellence in pediatric care. From Ambulatory Care to Transplantation and Cardiac Care, talented and committed pediatric experts care for infants, children, and adolescents who make more than 500,000 visits to Children's and its many neighborhood locations each year.

Children's also has been named consistently to several elite lists of pediatric health care facilities, including ranking seventh among children's hospitals (2005) in funding provided by the National Institutes of Health, and is named one of the best pediatric hospitals in the United States by U.S. News & World Report and Child magazines.

About Axela Inc

Axela has commercialized a proprietary technology for real-time protein detection. The company's products provide life science and clinical researchers with simple tools and reagents to study interactions, expand the utility of traditional immunoassays, and access unique categories of diagnostic markers. Participating in the research market provides a pipeline of novel discoveries that form the basis for future multiplex diagnostic offerings. Axela is a privately-held company with operations in Toronto and California whose major investor is VenGrowth Private Equity Partners Inc. For more information, please visit http://www.axela.com.

Source: Business Wire

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