Denator a Swedish-based biotechnology company specialized in biological sample preparation technologies have announced that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, had made a major purchase of its proprietary heat stabilization technology Stabilizor T1™.

The Stabilizor system has been shown to inactivate pathogens in biological samples, including virus and bacteria, and is used by CDC to obtain high quality samples for advanced downstream analysis such as gene sequencing and mass spectrometry.

Stabilizor™ was originally developed for the preservation of biological samples. Heat stabilization using the Stabilizor system utilizes conductive heating to rapidly eliminate enzymatic degradation in tissue samples, and thus preserving their molecular composition. In collaboration with USAMRIID the possibility of utilizing the technique also for pathogen inactivation was investigated and successfully confirmed (Cazares, L. H. et al (2015). Heat fixation inactivates viral and bacterial pathogens and is compatible with downstream MALDI mass spectrometry tissue imaging. BMC microbiology, 15(1),

The CDC has been evaluating Stabilizor T1™ over the last year and has now decided to invest in the technology. The growth of infectious diseases and the constant transformation of viral strains increase the need to analyze virus in a safe, standardized and convenient manner. Implementation of the Stabilizor system in laboratory workflows involving contaminated biological materials drastically increases the speed of sample handling and consistency of sample quality.

Treated samples can then be handled outside bio safely level laboratories. An addition advantage is that the sample DNA remains intact. “This is a significant and rewarding milestone for our heat stabilization technology” said Karsten Fjärstedt, CEO of Denator. “We are all aware of the escalating threat of virus and bacterial diseases, and are proud that our technology can enable researchers to inactivate pathogens in contaminated biological samples, and contribute to them learning more about these pathogens.”