The Life Science division of Meridian Bioscience, Inc., a leading global provider of diagnostic testing solutions and life science raw materials, has officially announced the launch of industry’s first liquid qPCR master mixes that are now proven stable for over 12 months at ambient temperatures and shippable with oligos without compromising performance.
According to certain reports, this mechanism is designed to eliminate the need for refrigeration, freezing, or costly lyophilization (freeze-drying). You see, it will instead conceive a level of flexibility and convenience not previously available in liquid formats.
Arriving with a focus on delivering superior performance, these new mixes really go the distance to expand Meridian’s portfolio of ambient-stable molecular reagents, while simultaneously simplifying logistics, reducing costs, and delivering sustainable solutions for assay developers and high-throughput automation users across all settings, right from point-of-care (POC) to centralized labs.
To understand the significance of such a development, we must take into account how, for decades now, the molecular diagnostics industry has relied on two primary methods to preserve liquid reagents i.e. maintaining a continuous cold chain or converting them into a dry format through processes, such as lyophilization.
Both these methods, however, prop up significant expense, complexity, and potential points of failure to the supply chain.
Against that Meridian’s new liquid formulations have displayed a knack to maintain full performance after more than 12 months at ambient temperatures (15-25°C), with proven reliability even after extended exposure to 50°C. Such a mechanism, like you can guess, makes it possible for users to build and supply assays without the cost, potential delays, environmental impact or other transport risks of cold-chain shipping.
Furthermore, end-users in hospitals, reference labs, or point-of-care settings can also store the assays at room temperature with complete confidence in performance.
Talk about the whole value proposition on a slightly deeper level, Meridian offers the new ambient-stable liquid mixes in two formats.
The first one here is going to be Liquid Stable Ready Mix (MDX364). This one happens to be a qPCR master mix formulated for manufacturers, tasked with creating ready-to-use assays. The stated formulation, like we briefly touched upon,, has displayed proven performance for over 12 months at ambient temperature and for over two weeks at 50°C, even in presence of oligos (primers and probes).
Owing to that, the stated mix is capable of serving the needs put-forth by high-throughput assay developers, featuring manufacturing assay kits for large-scale use, with primers and probes stabilized directly in the mix for a true ready-to-use format.
Turning our attention towards Liquid Stable Flex Mix (MDX360), it is a qPCR master mix that can be stored and shipped without cold chain, and at the same time, maintain full functionality for more than 12 months. In essence, primers and probes are added by the end-user at the point of use, thus enjoying maximum flexibility in assay design.
This particular mix guides labs and developers running flexible formats to validate the mix against a broad menu of targets, as well as give their customers the option to select and run specific targets at point of use, on demand.
Founded in 1983, Meridian’s rise up the ranks stems from delivering critical life science raw materials used in immunological and molecular tests for human, animal, plant, and environmental applications. The company’s excellence in what it does can also be understood once you consider it is currently trusted by hospitals, reference laboratories, research centers, veterinary testing centers, physician offices, diagnostics manufacturers, and biotech companies across more than 70 countries around the world.
“The new master mixes give assay developers the flexibility to choose the format that best supports their workflow,” said Florent Chang-Pi-Hin, Vice President, Research and Development at Meridian Life Science. “They can now design ready-to-use assays without the cost and risk of cold chain and lyophilization and empower their customers with tests that remain stable at ambient temperatures for ultimate convenience. Both options reduce labor, turnaround time, and error risk, while making it easier to deliver scalable, automation-friendly assays, even in decentralized or point-of-care settings.”
