BioTechniques exclusive: Mario Blanco sits down with Francesca Lake

In December 2019, Mario Blanco spoke with Francesca Lake, Editor of influential peer-review journals, BioTechniques, to talk about the release of MetaFluorex™ and the advantages it offers IVD testing over the incumbent materials used.

"NANOPEC has released a new class of nano-structured ceramic films – MetaFluorex™ – designed for in vitro diagnostic (IVD) kits, in a bid to disrupt the field and improve early disease detection," writes Lake. "While the majority of IVDs use reporter molecules to emit measurable fluorescence, in instances where disease is in its early stages or a sample has been prepared poorly the amount can be insufficient for a positive measurement, leading to a false negative, and potential health consequences."

Mario explained that "the new film’s honeycomb-like structure makes it photonic, thus increasing fluorescence intensity to around 25-times that you would achieve with a glass slide. This could be up to 100-times, but he noted that the exact amount of enhancement is still being refined through additional modifications. The materials are also not cytotoxic, making them safe for use with living cells."

Asked if these films replace glass as the gold standard for IVD, Mario commented: “If you were to ask me to choose a good material for doing diagnostics, I would probably turn first to glass because it’s cheap to produce. It’s easy to clean and it’s very smooth” he explained. “However, if you asked me to discard a material because of its properties, I would also be forced to look at glass for the same reasons – it’s hydrophobic, so people have to do a lot of tricks, such as blocking agents and excess antibodies, to make slides suitable for IVDs.”

You can read the full interview here.