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Key Disciplines Design & Manufacture Clients Brochure Design News |
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Chelsea offers a comprehensive instrument development services from concept to manufacture delivering innovative products to clients on time and to budget. Recent examples are shown below: |
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Government funding for foot and mouth detection |
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An optical sensor chip that started life as a way of
fighting bio-terrorism could soon be used in a test for foot-and-mouth
disease. Chelsea
Technologies Group in collaboration
with Stratophase, University of Cambridge, Bristol Industrial &
Research Associates are involved in a £1m project to develop a test to
identify foot-and-mouth disease on the spot. It will be more sensitive and
accurate than existing field-deployable systems, and much faster than
laboratory-based techniques. Chelsea
has over 40 year’s experience in the design and manufacture of
bio-medical instrumentation and will
provide system integration and product design to this cutting edge
project. |
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On-Site Rapid Diagnostics Screening - Portable microarray processor |
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The Chelsea Technologies Group has developed an ‘on-site rapid diagnostics screening system’ to detect and identify micro-organisms following a terrorist attack. Over recent years CTG has developed a novel, low-cost, optical system for reading low-density protein microarrays, work that was done in partnership with Microtest Matrices Ltd, (a spin out from Imperial College, London). With Home Office sponsorship, this advance has enabled the CTG, MtM and The Health Inspection Agency to develop a fully automated portable microarray processing platform for on-site diagnosis, a step which had hitherto been inhibited by the sophistication and expense of the optical imaging techniques available for reading high density DNA arrays, which until now has been the main driver for the development of this format. Press Release |
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Quotient Diagnostics Ltd: rapid point of care test for A1C |
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Diabetes
is a condition already affecting nearly 200 million people. Diabetics can
live long and healthy lives if they stay in close control of their
condition.
Quotient Diagnostics has developed a technology that will
revolutionise how it is monitored and managed. Working with Chelsea
Technologies Group they have produced an instrument to provide an
on-the-spot reading of glycated haemoglobin, a vital indicator of a
diabetic's condition, known as the A1C test. Most A1C tests require a
larger blood sample to be taken and sent away to a lab for analysis. The
Quotient solution will make it easy, low cost and quick but just as
accurate. Chelsea worked with Quotient to supply them with five
rapid prototypes. Press Release |
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Latest development for Osmetech Molecular Diagnostics - bringing molecular diagnostics to near patient testing |
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Chelsea designed a innovative, rapid and flexible PCR platform
for Osmetech Molecular Diagnostics, making genetic tests a reality
in the near point of care market. The
Opti Gene developed for Osmetech uses proven, well-accepted PCR technology
- random access and fully independent thermal cycling in every tube. It
permits 12 independent PCR cycles simultaneously; will suited to PCR assay
panel testing. It has a rapid thermal cycling time and intuitive
touch-screen display and analysis software. Enhanced reliability is gained
by having a homogeneous, closed tube format to reduce potential contamination. |
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GeneDrive |
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Molecular Sensing approached
us to develop a fluorescence based, 24 channel, quantitative PCR
system with each channel capable of running an independent thermal
profile. A custom moulded sample tube and disposable test cartridge were
first designed. An innovative and highly efficiency optical system was
devised, which had sub-nanomolar sensitivity in 20mL
of sample with a photomultiplier detector operating at relatively low
gain, while at the same time being insensitive to component alignment in
assembly. A heater circuit was developed to control each of the 24 four
channels independently while also providing the rapid cycling response
required by the application. The complete system was developed within a
year. |
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Current Developments for Homeland Security |
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Chelsea Technologies Group is working with UK and US Government Departments and Agencies on developing novel sensor systems for environmental monitoring and protection. The systems are specifically designed to measure a wide range of physical, chemical, biological and optical properties. These enable the natural biological and physical background levels in rivers, reservoirs and abstraction points to be characterised. Download Homeland Security brochure (pdf). |
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Pulsifer |
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The
Pulsifier uses a reciprocating beater-bar to send shock waves through a
food sample to drive microbes into solution to aid microbial analysis.
Food suspensions produced in this way are generally much clearer than can
be achieved using traditional blenders and require less downstream
processing. Microgen Bioproducts Ltd asked us to production
engineer their prototype to meet a competitive price target, reduce
operating noise, provide an attractive styling for the product and
incorporate microprocessor control. Acoustic analysis indicated that a significant
reduction in operating noise could be achieved by sealing the sample
within the unit while processing. Further improvements were achieved
through a novel crank-arm design that both minimised modes of vibration
and enabled the size of the unit to be reduced. |
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HaemaQuantTM: the first rapid point of care test for HbA1C |
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The Chelsea design
team worked closely with Provalis’ biochemists to realise their vision
of a portable, low cost assay platform. HaemaQuant™ has laboratory level photometric performance
but with the convenience and clinical advantages of a point-of-care test.
It has been designed for low cost manufacture with signal to noise
characteristics in the region of 10,000:1 to meet the demanding
requirements of the application. We also designed the novel disposable
cartridge that provides both the assay platform, for the complex
chemical/immunochemical reactions, and provision for photometric analysis
of up to 4 liquid fractions. |
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Auto-Titrator |
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Malvern Instruments, the world-leading
manufacturer of particle size analysis instrumentation incorporated a Chelsea designed auto-titrator into their Zetasizer range
of products. This new compact fluid preparation and analysis system was designed to
allow precise volumes of up to 3 reagents to be dispensed into a
disposable sample container under the control of the Zetasizer system,
thus providing an automatic titration facility.
This system is available from Chelsea as an auto-titrator or
can be configured for other precise liquid processing applications, where
a close link to a specific measurement system is required. Leaflet. |
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Low cost UV HPLC Fluorimeter |
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Drew Scientific asked us to design a
compact, low cost, UV fluorimeter that could be incorporated into their
DS30 Hcy liquid chromatography system being developed for the routine
monitoring of homocysteine, a marker for coronary heart disease. We quickly established the
demanding sensitivity requirements and through optimisation of the optical
design and detector electronics were able to improve the sensitivity to
five times better than the requirement. The time taken from initial client
contact to delivery of the first production units was less than 7 months. A recent redesign replacing the flash source with an LED has enabled a
dramatic reduction in production costs to be made with no loss in
performance.... |
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InstaQuantTM: A hand held reader for immunostrip test devices |
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Provalis Diagnostics
had already developed a visual ‘one-step’ test device for the
monitoring of osteoporosis. The challenge Provalis set us was to develop a simple, lost-cost,
hand-held photometer that could provide a more objective quantitative
result. Using rapid prototyping techniques a fully functional prototype,
virtually identical in appearance to the final product, was produced
within 4 months and the final instrument was ready for volume production
in less than 10 months. We have investigated & assessed a range of
options for analysing strip tests and this 'know how' is available for
future developments. |
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DARAS®: the first fully automated DNA analysis system |
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The DARAS® System from Tepnel Life Sciences PLC provides a
controlled environment for the automation of routine molecular biology
procedures on solid particles retained within a disposable reaction
column. The technology offers the potential for highly selective and
sensitive identification of DNA fragments. Using a novel flow through
fluid handling approach, the instrument combines robotic control of the
reaction columns, precise temperature control and on-line photometry to
facilitate sequence specific capture and detection of DNA, normally
achieved using manual processes. Chelsea developed Tepnel's prototype system with the aim of taking it into serial
production. This entailed a re-design of the complete system, encompassing
the mechanical, electrical, optical & industrial design as well as the
user interface and embedded software. |
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.....
and some more Products & Developments.... |
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Microtitre Plate Shaker/Incubator |
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Fluorescent Capillary Fill Device Technology - Quantimmune Systems |
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Photometer - European Diagnostics Group Ltd |
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AutoPrep12
- Cambridge Molecular Technologies Ltd
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CI4000
Protein Sequencer
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