Georgia State has signed a licensing deal with Pinnacle Bio, a biotechnology firm that specializes in developing and marketing technologies to diagnose infectious diseases, to market a point-of-care influenza diagnostic developed by Suri Iyer, professor in the Department of Chemistry and the Center for Diagnostics & Therapeutics.

Methods of diagnosing influenza are often expensive, not sensitive enough and require trained personnel to administer. Iyer and his colleagues have designed an accurate test that can detect influenza viruses in 15 minutes.

The test requires only a nasal swab and detects a protein on the surface of the virus to identify influenza A and influenza B—the two main flu strains in humans. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

“Physicians generally will not administer a flu test except in small children or the elderly. We polled doctors and found that many felt it wasn’t worth the cost,” said Aatish Madhiwala, a physician and the managing director of Pinnacle Bio. “Yet in the past several years, we’ve seen more strains of influenza that aren’t targeted by the flu vaccine and we’ve seen an increase in morbidity and mortality. The flu is scaring people more than it once did in developed nations.”

Madhiwala says Pinnacle sees an opportunity for an accurate, inexpensive influenza diagnostic in the American, Canadian and European markets. Engineers at Pinnacle have developed a reader that works with the test, and the company hopes to begin trials in Europe in the next six months.

“After that, our goal is to get FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approval within the next 24 months,” he said. “We think we’ll be able to make the test more affordable than what’s currently available by a fairly big margin.”

A broadly used diagnostic would also allow doctors to be more selective in who receives Tamiflu, an antiviral medication that works against the flu.

“Currently, doctors are prescribing Tamiflu to anybody with flu-like symptoms, without knowing whether the patient actually has influenza,” said Madhiwala. “As a result, we’ve been experiencing shortages of the medication.”

Pinnacle hopes to refine the test to quantify a patient’s viral load.

“This will show whether you’re a carrier of the virus, in the preliminary stages of the flu, or have full-blown flu, and help determine whether it’s the best time to deliver those antivirals,” Madhiwala said.

“The arrangement with Pinnacle Bio exemplifies Georgia State’s commitment to serve as a bridge between our outstanding scientists and the companies that have the expertise to make the fruits of their research available,” said Vincent La Terza, associate vice president for research and director of technology transfer and commercialization. “We hope the partnership can lead to improved diagnosis of an infectious disease that affects millions of people worldwide.”