Beacon Biotechnology is pleased to announce that it has received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Phase I Grant Award for investigation of the BrightSPOT technology in an application to detect markers for Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM), commonly known as "Childhood Diabetes".

Dr. Christina Roark, a Senior Scientist at Beacon Biotechnology and the Principal Investigator on the project, specializes in immunology and immunological methods and has a significant background in the study of autoantibodies related to diabetes. Dr. Roark demonstrated the BrightSPOT platform was capable of detecting autoantibodies to one of several markers for T1DM, GAD65, at levels of sensitivity that rival customized laboratory methods (more). Application of the BrightSPOT technology could allow screening of T1DM autoantibodies to occur in a general practice setting while the patient is present. Currently, a blood tube is drawn from the patient and transported to a reference lab, which performs the T1DM screen and reports test results days later.