Our Story
From an idea to a company
Through our teams' hard work, we have been able to take our initial question "how do we detect pathogens in our work environment?" to form a business that we hope can disrupt the current testing paradigm. Leveraging the latest technologies makes it possible for consumers, workers and patients to feel more confident in returning to 'normal' after the pandemic. Additional work is ongoing to develop new methods and devices for testing, which we hope can make testing easier, faster, and more affordable to a more diverse market.
- It all started in May 2020, when we realized there were no effective and affordable methods for detecting pathogens in our workspaces and public environments. We set a goal to develop an inexpensive device that can be used to screen for pathogens, with an eye toward eventual expansion to detecting human pathogens diagnostically outside the laboratory setting.
- In June 2020, we started researching different methods to help with pathogen detection. We came across some research performed at the Harvard Wyss Institute that seemed promising for our desired applications.
- In July 2020, we met with investigators and a representative of the Technology Transfer Office at the Harvard Wyss Institute and started exploring licensing opportunities. Our internal team made the commitment and officially formed Agile Biodetection, Inc. in early August.
- All of our licensing agreements were in place by the end of August 2020, thanks to the COVID-19 Express Licensing agreements that were provided by Harvard.
- We identified a great 'bare bones' workspace in Homewood, AL, and started the process of building out our space in mid-September.
- We completed the build-out of our R&D and clinical lab in November 2020.
- We received our CLIA and state laboratory certification in December 2020.
- In January 2021, we started the validation of our laboratory's clinical services and started working on our first device.
- In May 2021, work was started on our second device, Pipette Guide. This device is designed to assist labs with the accuracy of their manual pipetting. We look forward to announcing more details about this product and distributors early in 2022.
- Our CLIA laboratory is offering testing services effective October 31, 2021.