Aureum Diagnostics is building a cheap, disposable blood test for traumatic brain injury that could be used pitch-side at a football match or roadside after a car crash. Current diagnosis of mild brain injury relies on expensive CT and MRI scans, which are slow, costly, and often miss milder concussions. Existing tests also do not work for people under 18, leaving a gap for children and teenagers who take knocks in junior sports. The problem is widespread: traumatic brain injury occurs in professional and amateur sport, traffic accidents, domestic violence, and military activity. If the project succeeds, it will replace a diagnostic system that costs thousands of pounds per instrument and tens of pounds per test with a reader that costs a fraction of that and test strips that cost pennies. The test would also expand the standard biomarker panel from two markers to three, making it valid for under-18s. This could shift diagnosis out of hospitals and into community settings—sports fields, GP surgeries, or roadside clinics—reducing the burden on expensive imaging and allowing faster, more widespread detection of brain injuries that currently go undiagnosed.
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Aureum Diagnostics proposes to develop a ground-breaking point of care diagnostic assay for early and reliable diagnosis of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). The project will use Aureum's proprietary advanced high-sensitivity, rapid, low cost and easy to use biosensor platform to measure key biomarkers of TBI in blood. TBI is an emerging market in diagnostic testing, this is because around the world healthcare infrastructure is improving and awareness of the potential downstream impacts of poorly diagnosed TBI are growing. Sporting activity (professional or amateur), traffic accidents, domestic partner violence and military activity all give rise to TBI and because of this, interest in the condition and its ongoing effects is increasing. In addition, the current diagnostic tests do not cover individuals less than 18 years of age and due to the prevalence of mild TBI/head knocks in junior sports, a pitch side test is much in demand. Finally, much of current testing for TBI requires use of imaging technologies such as CT and MRI scanning which are expensive and slow with milder TBI/concussion harder to measure in this way. At this point, the advantages of point of care testing with low-cost strips and reader and a quick time to result become obvious. This project will develop a technology platform which includes a low-cost reader and low-cost test-strips capable of measuring TBI biomarkers straight from blood at the point of need. In addition, Aureum will expand the commonly used two biomarker panel for TBI to a three marker panel. This will mean the test covers under 18s too and will significantly disrupt the market meaning that a point of need test for use at sporting, social and traffic events with a low cost of acquisition becomes available. Current product offerings in this space typically have a reader cost of £5-10,000 per instrument and a cartridge cost of £44 per test. Aureum's replacement technology approach reduces this to £50 per reader instrument and 50 pence per test strip. As can be seen, this will lead to a proliferation of testing for TBI in the community and reducing burden on the established diagnostic pathway, particularly expensive imaging technologies such as CT and MRI.
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