Life-saving Fast MDx testing system was developed with Festo’s help

The compact, mobile Fast MDx is the world’s first fully automated, high-throughput, near-patient molecular diagnostic testing system, developed with Festo engineering support and technology.

The Festo Group has played a significant role in the development of the world’s first fully automated, high-throughput, near-patient molecular diagnostic testing system: the Fast MDx. A game changer in pathogen detection, this system is expected to save lives by cutting the typical turnaround time for test results from days to hours.

Created by the British social-enterprise organization of the same name, the Fast MDx system was developed with Festo engineering support and automation technology.

Faster results, earlier treatment

This compact, mobile platform reduces the turnaround time from the standard 24-48 hours to just one-to-two hours – faster results that lead to earlier treatment and a better chance to contain infectious-disease spread. Fast MDx requires only one technician, to process 1,000-plus samples in an eight-hour shift, which is five times more efficient than manual test processing is. Hospitals and other medical facilities can set up platforms close to patients, and Fast MDx eliminates the need to ship test samples to a central biosafe laboratory, saving time and money.

Fast MDx (the company) built the first prototypes quickly and efficiently, in spite of the high level of complexity, thanks to the close collaboration with Festo. It combined Festo’s proven three-dimensional gantries, controllers, and pipetting systems with its own extensive expertise in qPCR thermal cycling. Each unit includes two Festo EXCM planar surface gantries with electric axes for exact pipette handling and robot-assisted handling of the PCR microtiter plates. During sample preparation, one of these gantries functions in the X and Y planes, and Pathtubes are scanned with Festo optical sensors.

Other Festo solutions involved in this platform include a DHOE pipetting head and a DHAO disposable syringe tip ejector, both mounted on the gantry in the Z direction, and a PGVA pressure and vacuum generator, which eliminates the need for an external compressed-air supply for pressure-over-liquid pipetting. The PGVA integrates compressor, air preparation, reservoir, and electronic pressure and vacuum control in one compact package.

A social-enterprise company, Fast MDx will lend out this platform for free, with reagents and other supplies serving as the principal customer expense.

To learn more, contact Festo.

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