Thursday, October 15, 2009

Bioo Scientific Won Tech Innovation Award for Technology that Detects Melamine Contamination

The Director of Protein Chemistry and Engineering at Bioo Scientific, Dr Joe Krebs, won the Austin Business Journal’s 2009 Tech Innovator of the Year award in the Biotech/Medical division, for his work on the MaxSignal® Melamine Enzymatic Assay Kit. Eighty six people who demonstrated excellence in innovative technological advancement were nominated for the 2009 Tech Innovator of the Year award. Dr Krebs won this award because his work on this kit will protect our food and pharmaceutical supply by allowing companies and government agencies to quickly and inexpensively screen for melamine contamination. The MaxSignal® Melamine Enzymatic Assay Kit is a low-cost, high-throughput colorimetric test kit, which detects melamine in food and pharmaceutical samples.

Recently, melamine has rapidly emerged as a major threat to the world’s food and pharmaceutical supplies. Melamine is a dangerous, nitrogen rich organic compound that is illegally added to food and feed to increase the apparent protein content values of food products. Consumption of melamine causes highly insoluble melamine cyanurate crystals to form in the kidney, which damage renal cells and can result in renal failure or death. The recent establishment of a 1µg/g (1 ppm) safety threshold for melamine in infant foods has led to an immediate need for sensitive melamine detection methods.

Based on Bioo Scientific’s patent-pending technology, Dr Joe Krebs and Ms. Jessica Brill, developed a test that meets the requirements of low-cost, speed and simplicity which are desperately needed by food and feed safety customers; a community comprised of government regulatory agencies such as USDA and FDA analysts, as well as academic labs, food processing plants and retailers.

About Bioo Scientific Corporation
Bioo Scientific Corporation is an Austin, TX based biotechnology company that provides innovative solutions to the life science industry. Bioo Scientific offers a complete portfolio of products and services for academic, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and molecular diagnostics laboratories, and for organizations that perform food and feed safety analysis.

As a world leader in food safety testing, Bioo Scientific is dedicated to improving the safety of the world’s food and feed supply by developing accurate, affordable tools, which allow companies to readily screen for pathogens and contaminants. Bioo Scientific’s products are used around the world and can be purchased both directly or through our global distribution network that markets our products in more than 40 countries. For more information about Bioo Scientific, visit www.biooscientific.com.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Bioo Scientific Awarded USDA Grant for Development of Technology to Detect Food Contaminants

The safety of the public food supply is an important global public health issue. Last year over 300,000 people were hospitalized with food poisoning in the US alone. Because of recent food contamination incidents, Congress just passed a sweeping reform of the food-safety system that will require improved testing of domestically produced and imported food. This reform increases the need for sensitive, reliable and affordable assays to screen and protect our food supply.

As a demonstration of the commitment by the US government to food safety, Bioo Scientific was awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II grant totaling $350,000 from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the development of a new technology to detect the presence of contaminants in food and feed. Bioo Scientific is developing innovative enzymatic assays that are ideal for the detection of low molecular weight analytes, such as melamine, which are too small to be measured accurately using ELISA assays (a traditional assay used for food testing). These assays will be an effective new tool for developing improved procedures for comprehensive yet cost-effective screening of food samples for melamine and other contaminants to better ensure the safety of our food and feed supply.

About Bioo Scientific Corporation
Bioo Scientific Corporation is an Austin, TX based biotechnology company that provides innovative solutions to the life science industry. Bioo Scientific offers a complete portfolio of products and services for academic, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and molecular diagnostics laboratories, and for organizations that perform food and feed safety analysis.
As a world leader in food safety testing, Bioo Scientific is dedicated to improving the safety of the world’s food and feed supply by developing accurate, affordable tools, which allow companies to readily screen for pathogens and contaminants. Bioo Scientific’s products are used around the world and can be purchased both directly or through our global distribution network that markets our products in more than 40 countries. For more information about Bioo Scientific, visit www.biooscientific.com.