ReSyn Biosciences, a biotechnology spin-off company from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has won a prestigious new product award at the Society for Lab Automation and Screening (SLAS) conference for its range of innovative MagReSyn® products, which help scientists find disease mechanisms faster.

The SLAS conference and exhibition event was held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Centre in Washington, DC, from 7-11 February, 2015.

The new product award is given to companies that design unique and novel technologies based on the potential impact these products are likely to have in the field of automation, screening and drug discovery.

“The high-performance products, MagReSyn®, are capable of expediting research, assisting scientists in making discoveries faster, and helping to find the mechanisms of disease. Identifying the cause of a disease is the key component in their eventual diagnosis and treatment,” ReSyn Biosciences CEO, Dr Justin Jordaan says.

The MagReSyn® products were developed by Jordaan and his team at the CSIR from a proprietary technology platform, which is subject to an international patent application. Jordaan says the MagReSyn® products data demonstrated product quality and utility and was included in the recent international scientific publication by researchers at Cancer Research UK, the Institute of Cancer Research in the United Kingdom, the University of Dundee (Scotland) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States of America. The products were also used in an automated platform and described as ‘excellent’ for a process frequently used in discovering the mechanisms of cancer.

The MagReSyn® products evaluated in this study provided the highest reproducibility and data quality, providing the means to improve inter-lab co-operation for cancer discovery research.

Supporting information was provided in the form of scientific publications and posters prepared in collaboration with international research and industrial partners, where the MagReSyn® products played a key enabling role in automation and screening.

A total of 296 life-sciences companies participated in the SLAS 2015 exhibition, 61 of which submitted products for consideration of a new product award designation, with a total of four awards conferred at this year’s event.

Companies that received awards include Sony Corporation for their SI8000 Cell Motion Imaging System, regenHU for their 3D Discovery BioSafety Cabinet and BlueCatBio for their BlueWasher centrifugal microplate washer.

“Research is currently underway to expand the range of applications of the technology platform to include the green production of pharmaceutical intermediates and novel research and diagnostic tools. The research continues to be supported by the CSIR through the Biomanufacturing Industry Development Centre Programme,” Jordaan says.