Dorit Arad, MND, and the business of diagnostic tests for viral pandemics

tests, it does not try to detect antibodies, but actually focuses on detecting a live virus as it is the process of reproducing,” Arad, MND’s CTO explains. “This is extremely innovative. In the last 20-30 years nothing has really changed in the field of diagnostics. There have been modifications and improvements to existing methods, but this is the first time something really new has emerged.”

The ease and quickness of the test, the fact that it can be performed on-site, and the fact that there is no need for back-up labs and equipment makes it ideal for detecting pandemic viruses. There is another reason why public health authorities and first responders would be interested in the text kits: “The technology is very general so it can apply to every new virus that emerges,” Arad says. “We divide viruses into families, and if an old virus mutates, or a new virus emerges we know which family it belongs to and can quickly find the system to produce a detection product for it…. The general view today is that the next great pandemic will stem from avian flu, but tomorrow a new virus can emerge and we don’t know what it will be. With our knowledge we can still create a diagnostic kit,” she adds.

Her company is now preparing a diagnostic kit for CMV, a herpes virus which can be extremely harmful to a baby in the womb, and for bacterial meningitis, an inflammation of the linings that surround and protect the brain. The company has already developed proof of concept prototypes for these kits, and plans clinical trials over the next two years. “We should be on the market in one, to one and a half years with the meningitis diagnosis, and two years with the CMV and pandemic virus kits,” says Arad. Arad plans diagnostic kits for a range of other illnesses including AIDS, malaria, hepatitis, mumps, tuberculosis, foot and mouth disease (in animals), polio, and other worldwide epidemics.

Arad is not only a brilliant scientist, but also a savvy business woman. Following her post-doctoral work in San Francisco she joined eXegenics, where she worked as executive VP for five years. In 2004 Arad left eXegenics, buying back her research from the company. She returned to Israel and applied for support from Israeli incubator Yozmot Granot Initiative Center, located outside the city of Hadera in central Israel.