Business delivers improved treatment for lung disease

A business plan for a new testing device designed to improve the lives of thousands of people each year struck down with lung disease has scooped the top prize worth $25,000 in this year's Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Business Plan Competition.

Researchers Dr Benjamin Fry and Viraj Nawagamuwa, from RMIT's Faculty of Life Sciences, won with their idea of marketing GeneMaster 7000, a laboratory-based diagnostic tool that offers fast, accurate and reliable diagnosis of lung disease causing bacteria.

GeneMaster 7000 is the first of its type in the world that uses biotechnology to identify accurately which bacterium is causing a lung infection and at the same time indicate the most effective treatment.

Dr Fry, a biotechnology lecturer, and Mr Nawagamuwa, a PhD student, developed the new health device in response to shortfalls in the laboratory testing procedures.

"Current tests for detecting bacteria causing infection are not efficient," said Dr Fry. "Pathology laboratories have indicated only 20% of all samples received (275,000 in 2001) generate a valuable response. Therefore in 80% of cases, GPs and specialists are not receiving adequate information on the cause of the infection and are not able to effectively treat the patient."

Mr Nawagamuwa said the need to find better treatments for detecting bacteria causing lung disease, the most common illness in the world, was never more essential. "The number of patients suffering from respiratory infections is increasing, as is the number of deaths caused by lung disease," said Mr Nawagamuwa.

"In order to ensure effective treatment and minimise patient suffering, clinicians need to know the cause of infection as soon as possible."

The researchers' company, Diagnostic Array Systems, aims to meet the market needs of the clinical health system, and the team hopes to begin developing the prototype of GeneMaster 7000 in July 2003.

Item provided courtesy of RMIT