Rand Capital Portfolio Company, Rheonix, Announces Successful Conclusion of Early-Access Assay Evaluation
September 12 2019 - 09:00AM
Business Wire
Enables Food Producers to Rapidly Identify and Address
Recurring Listeria in Facilities
Rand Capital Corporation (Nasdaq: RAND) (“Rand” or “Rand
Capital”), a business development company, announced that one of
its portfolio companies, Rheonix, Inc., along with Mérieux
NutriSciences, successfully concluded early-access customer
evaluations of Rheonix’s Listeria PatternAlert™ assay. Mérieux is a
leading global testing lab with over 100 labs worldwide. Rheonix
has partnered with multiple early access customers, including food
testing laboratories, food companies and food industry associations
to evaluate the assay. In all, Rheonix and its early access
customers have conducted thousands of tests on real-world samples.
The breakthrough method rapidly identifies molecular patterns for
Listeria directly from enriched samples, assisting food producers
in identifying harborage sites for persistent Listeria and in
tracing back sources of contamination. The company recently began
commercializing the assay directly to food companies and commercial
testing labs.
In a recently published case study, Mérieux NutriSciences
describes its collaboration with a food manufacturer to evaluate
the practical application of the Rheonix Listeria PatternAlert™
technology. Analysis of the results identified a harborage site in
a warehouse as well as likely encroachment into a production area,
enabling Mérieux to quickly recommend targeted actions.
“We were thrilled with the results of these evaluations, and
with the insights the Mérieux team provided throughout our
collaboration,” said Brooke Schwartz, Rheonix Vice President of
Strategy and Marketing. “With food producers experiencing a growing
need to better understand the source of Listeria contamination in
their facilities, this innovative technology provides a truly
practical solution. The Mérieux case study demonstrates how
manufacturers can use this rapid, cost-effective method to reduce
the risk of finished product contamination in their
facilities.”
Alternative strain typing methods take up to two weeks to
complete, which limits their use in routine testing. The Listeria
PatternAlert™ assay, which is performed using Rheonix’s fully
automated Encompass Optimum™ workstation, enables users to detect
molecular patterns in as little as seven hours after a presumptive
positive diagnostic screening result. With the PatternAlert
software, users can match their patterns across locations and time
to rapidly identify harborage sites and dissemination paths,
enabling them to make same day operational changes in their
facilities.
Allen F. (“Pete”) Grum, President and Chief Executive Officer of
Rand Capital, added, “We are pleased to support Rheonix in their
mission to develop relevant and affordable molecular testing to
address unmet needs. As an early investor, we are proud of their
advancements in the field of molecular testing, from diagnostics
labs to applied markets testing for food and beverage
applications.”
Rand began investing in Rheonix in 2009, having invested $2.8
million to date.
ABOUT RHEONIX
Rheonix has developed the suite of Encompass workstations, fully
automated systems that provide highly multiplexed sample-to-answer
molecular testing for use in clinical, research and applied testing
laboratories. With minimal hands-on time, the Encompass systems
offer true walkaway simplicity. Rheonix’s growing portfolio of
multiplexed food and beverage testing solutions includes the Beer
SpoilerAlert™ assay, the most comprehensive beer spoilage panel
available; the Listeria PatternAlert™ assay, a rapid method for
identifying patterns of molecular targets present in Listeria
direct from an enriched sample; and the NGS OnePrep™ solution, a
fully integrated and automated DNA extraction and library prep
solution. With Rheonix, getting more information from your sample
has never been easier. For more information, refer to:
http://rheonix.com/.
ABOUT RAND CAPITAL
Rand Capital (Nasdaq: RAND) is a Business Development Company
(BDC) with a wholly-owned subsidiary licensed by the U.S. Small
Business Administration (SBA) as a Small Business Investment
Company (SBIC). Rand currently focuses its equity investments in
early or expansion stage companies and generally lends to more
mature companies. The Company seeks investment opportunities in
businesses with strong leaders who are bringing to market new or
unique products, technologies or services that have a high
potential for growth. Additional information can be found at the
Company’s website where it regularly posts information:
http://www.randcapital.com/.
Safe Harbor Statement
This news release contains “forward-looking statements” within
the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements
concerning future net asset value growth, investment returns and
opportunities as well as Rand’s plans for utilizing proceeds from
sales of portfolio companies when and if received. These statements
involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors
that could cause the actual results to differ materially from the
results expressed or implied by such statements, including general
economic and business conditions, conditions affecting the
portfolio companies’ markets, competitor responses, and market
acceptance of their products and services and other factors
disclosed in the Corporation’s periodic reports filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. Consequently, such
forward-looking statements should be regarded as the Corporation’s
current plans, estimates and beliefs. The Corporation assumes no
obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in
this release.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190912005110/en/
Allen F. ("Pete") Grum President and CEO Phone: 716.853.0802
Email: pgrum@randcapital.com
Deborah K. Pawlowski / Karen L. Howard Kei Advisors LLC Phone:
716.843.3908 / 716.843.3942 Email: dpawlowski@keiadvisors.com
khoward@keiadvisors.com
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