Testing flu vaccines twenty times faster

Synbiosis says that major international vaccine suppliers are using its Protocol system to improve the speed and accuracy of testing flu vaccines

Vaccine suppliers use Synbiosis's GLP-compliant Protocol, with its integrated CCD camera and software, to determine the size of reaction zones on single radial immunodiffusion (SRD) assay plates.

This is a standard test to determine the potency of flu and other vaccines.

A research assistant at one vaccine manufacturer commented: "The Protocol is excellent for SRD assays.

"It allows us to alter the contrast manually and this is useful because with a Coomassie blue stain the depth of colour can differ across the SRD plate.

"Therefore, changing the contrast can mean the difference between seeing and measuring a diffuse zone or not.

"Also since the system does the reading we have time to inspect each plate to find wells that are not perfectly circular.

"Before we had a Protocol we used a computerised system to mark one well at a time with a mouse, and reading each plate was a 15-20 minute process.

"With the Protocol we overlay the template and have a 16-well plate measured in less than a minute.

"We are so confident in the Protocol that we are going to use it in a stability study of a new flu vaccine to read 200-300 SRD plates a week.

"The increased capacity it provides will help complete this work in a fraction of the time it would have taken".

Simon Johns, divisional manager for Synbiosis stated: "The Protocol system is fast becoming the international standard for automating SRD assays and it is now being applied widely.

"The fact that the Protocol at leading vaccine manufacturers increases throughput by twenty times is a great endorsement of its capabilities and shows pharmaceutical companies developing vaccines or antibiotics how much it could boost their productivity.

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