LuminUltra has acquired the Legionella testing business assets of Genomadix, as well as the rights to develop and commercialize further assays and test methods in global water, energy, and food and beverage markets using Genomadix's thermocycling portable testing platform.
The transaction was completed on July 31; financial and other terms of the agreement have not been disclosed.
In a statement, LuminUltra noted that the acquisition will further expand its portfolio of molecular tests for rapid identification and quantification of Legionella microbes within residential, commercial, and industrial water systems.
Legionella bacterial infections may cause the potentially fatal respiratory infection known as Legionnaire's disease; outbreaks are frequently traced to human-made water systems, such as plumbing systems and cooling towers.
"LuminUltra was the perfect home for the Legionella business that we nurtured under the Spartan Bioscience brand. We intend to support a seamless transition with our customers," Steve Edgett, CEO of Genomadix, said. "We are thrilled that LuminUltra will bring scale, expertise, and focus to the Legionella business."
He added that Genomadix is now focused on the development and commercialization of precision medicine tests on the Cube and licensing its CubeX Open Platform to strategic partners, noting that "the agreement with LuminUltra will lead to the development of new tests and expanded access to fast and accurate qPCR testing on CubeX for time-sensitive point of use applications in applied markets."
The Genomadix Cube quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) platform generates results for the presence and quantity of Legionella contamination in under one hour. Its portability allows field users to quickly and accurately assess the level of contamination within a water system to minimize the risk of outbreaks and operational downtime, the firms said in a statement.
