Avelo, VIVOLTA, and BLINK secure EUR 1.5 million Eurostars grant for revolutionary breath-based diagnostic system
26.10.2023
The three companies from Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Germany have come together to establish the BreathCounts consortium, aiming to revolutionize the diagnosis of lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) through non-invasive breath analysis. LRTIs, the fourth leading cause of global mortality with over 2.5 million annual deaths, pose a critical challenge. Fueled by the urgent need for better diagnostic tools, these companies are innovating to potentially save countless lives.
 Avelo's team
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The companies will aim at developing a disposable breath collection device, incorporating an electrospun filter, as well as a high-throughput diagnostic assay capable of screening multiple pathogens at the point of need. The project will span two years and lay the foundation for market launch in 2027.
The solution will be the world’s first breath-based system capable of fast, accurate, and specific diagnosis of LRTIs, and will be simple to use for maximum adoption around the world. Using this system, clinicians will be able to distinguish between viral and bacterial infections, specifying the underlying cause of infection and drug resistance genes, thus informing the best possible treatment. Particularly, as bacterial resistance from the overuse and misuse of antibiotics for non-bacterial infections grows in significance, providing an accurate, fast, and specific diagnosis will help clinicians prescribe the right medication and help combat this major global health problem.
The LRTIs solution consists of two products used in conjunction: AveloCollect, a novel breath sampling device capturing the infection-causing pathogen(s) directly from exhaled breath through its proprietary aerosol filter technology, and Respirex, a unique molecular diagnostic test using the world’s first digital PCR point-of-care analyzer for sensitive detection of LRTIs.
The AveloCollect breath collector, developed by Avelo, represents a breakthrough in LRTI sample collection because current methods are a major limiting factor for diagnosis: they miss LRTIs (swabs or saliva), are hard to obtain (sputum), or are highly invasive (bronchoalveolar lavage), leaving up to 50% of patients without an accurate diagnosis. In contrast, AveloCollect captures biological sample material, including the infection-causing pathogens, from the patient’s breath in a non-invasive and fast manner.
The AveloCollect device also incorporates a high-efficiency filter material, created by a specialized manufacturing process called electrospinning. Vivolta, a world-leading company in medical electrospinning, will be responsible for optimizing and scaling this process up for the commercial phase by leveraging its proprietary MediSpin platform, which is the world’s first and only fully automated, mass production system qualified for electrospun medical products.
Respirex, developed by BLINK, is a specialized LRTI test that can rapidly identify multiple pathogens at once, measured from a single AveloCollect breath sample. The Respirex assay, which identifies a pathogen’s specific DNA/RNA fingerprint, is based on BLINK’s proprietary digital PCR technology. It enables highly precise and extremely broad molecular analysis of a single sample via nanoreactor bead technology, enabling dozens to hundreds of tests in one. The Respirex assay will be produced in the form of a cartridge, containing all reagents necessary for the test, greatly reducing the time and variability of other systems where reagents must be added separately by a technician. After adding the breath sample from the AveloCollect device, the Respirex cartridge can be rapidly analyzed in BLINK’s first-of-its-kind point-of-care analyzer, the BLINK ONE.
Avelo won the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Award 2023 and won Venture Kick Stage 3 in 2022.
"This Eurostars project is a great opportunity to continue our path to market. Venture Kick has played a crucial role in “kick-starting” this exciting journey," said Melanie Aregger, CEO and Co-Founder of Avelo.
Source: Avelo press release
The solution will be the world’s first breath-based system capable of fast, accurate, and specific diagnosis of LRTIs, and will be simple to use for maximum adoption around the world. Using this system, clinicians will be able to distinguish between viral and bacterial infections, specifying the underlying cause of infection and drug resistance genes, thus informing the best possible treatment. Particularly, as bacterial resistance from the overuse and misuse of antibiotics for non-bacterial infections grows in significance, providing an accurate, fast, and specific diagnosis will help clinicians prescribe the right medication and help combat this major global health problem.
The LRTIs solution consists of two products used in conjunction: AveloCollect, a novel breath sampling device capturing the infection-causing pathogen(s) directly from exhaled breath through its proprietary aerosol filter technology, and Respirex, a unique molecular diagnostic test using the world’s first digital PCR point-of-care analyzer for sensitive detection of LRTIs.
The AveloCollect breath collector, developed by Avelo, represents a breakthrough in LRTI sample collection because current methods are a major limiting factor for diagnosis: they miss LRTIs (swabs or saliva), are hard to obtain (sputum), or are highly invasive (bronchoalveolar lavage), leaving up to 50% of patients without an accurate diagnosis. In contrast, AveloCollect captures biological sample material, including the infection-causing pathogens, from the patient’s breath in a non-invasive and fast manner.
The AveloCollect device also incorporates a high-efficiency filter material, created by a specialized manufacturing process called electrospinning. Vivolta, a world-leading company in medical electrospinning, will be responsible for optimizing and scaling this process up for the commercial phase by leveraging its proprietary MediSpin platform, which is the world’s first and only fully automated, mass production system qualified for electrospun medical products.
Respirex, developed by BLINK, is a specialized LRTI test that can rapidly identify multiple pathogens at once, measured from a single AveloCollect breath sample. The Respirex assay, which identifies a pathogen’s specific DNA/RNA fingerprint, is based on BLINK’s proprietary digital PCR technology. It enables highly precise and extremely broad molecular analysis of a single sample via nanoreactor bead technology, enabling dozens to hundreds of tests in one. The Respirex assay will be produced in the form of a cartridge, containing all reagents necessary for the test, greatly reducing the time and variability of other systems where reagents must be added separately by a technician. After adding the breath sample from the AveloCollect device, the Respirex cartridge can be rapidly analyzed in BLINK’s first-of-its-kind point-of-care analyzer, the BLINK ONE.
Avelo won the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Award 2023 and won Venture Kick Stage 3 in 2022.
"This Eurostars project is a great opportunity to continue our path to market. Venture Kick has played a crucial role in “kick-starting” this exciting journey," said Melanie Aregger, CEO and Co-Founder of Avelo.
Source: Avelo press release