L3Technology Limited (“L3T”) was founded in 2002 to commercialise technology from the Daresbury Laboratory of the Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils (CCLRC) of the UK.
L3T’s first products will be used on human blood to measure lipids, generally known, as “cholesterol levels”. It is currently estimated that over 150 million people, worldwide, have dangerously high levels of cholesterol, putting them at risk of premature death from heart disease or stroke. Many Western governments have set targets to reduce these premature deaths – around 600,000 per annum – with strategies based on early detection and intervention. In order to hit these targets, there needs to be a leap in the accuracy of testing
Approximately 500 million cholesterol tests were conducted in 2006, with 90% being done in central laboratories. The expansion of testing outside of the central laboratory – so called Point of Care (PoC) testing – is hampered by the poor accuracy of current PoC methods.
L3T’s patented inventions will bring reference laboratory accuracy to Point of Care testing.
The essential basis of the technological
innovation resides in the use of specific dyes which, when added directly
to a lipid solution, combine with particular fractions and sub-species of
cholesterol and fluoresce. The measurement of the intensity of this fluorescence
can directly quantify the amount of each fraction present in the sample.
Further information upon the nature and relative proportion of the lipid
sub-fractions can be obtained by measuring the duration of the signal (fluorescence
life-time). The results obtained allow a physician to evaluate the risk
of coronary heart disease and stroke in the patient being tested and to
regulate ongoing drug and/or diet regimes designed to lower or obviate the
risk.