SmartBeads™ Standardise In-House Developed Assays

At the recent ASM meeting in Atlanta, Cepheid launched their new Customer Specified Reagents (CSR) program. This program expands Cepheid's business reach and enables customers to take advantage of Cepheid's proprietary SmartBead™ technology whereby their customer-developed reagents are processed at Cepheid utilizing Cepheid's proprietary bead technology.

SmartBeads rely on the same proven technology used in Cepheid's expanding menu of bead-based Real-Time PCR master mixes, ASRs, and GeneXpert® cartridges. Customer specified reagents in the SmartBead format provide customers with standardized reagents demonstrating enhanced stability, improved reproducibility, and greater efficiency.

"Cepheid is using the SmartBead CSR program to build custom products for use in home-brew assays developed at clinical diagnostic laboratories and large US Federal Government agencies," said Roger Schaller, Cepheid's Director of the CSR Program. "SmartBeads have already been employed to produce reagents for detecting Leishmaniasis, Avian Influenza, Exotic New Castle's Viral disease, bacteria and yeast associated with wine spoilage, E. coli STEC/O157:H7, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Asian Soy Bean Rust, Enterococcus, and pharmacogenomically relevant SNPs."

There is also a possibility that particular reagents from this program could be licensed to additionally expand Cepheids product range.