Ankur Capital has recently announced an investment in Hyderabad-based startup D-NOME, for developing a molecular diagnostic platform solution based on loop mediated isothermal amplification technology (D-LAMP) with applications in human infectious diseases, livestock screening, agriculture molecular techniques and next generation genomic sequencing.

The major bottleneck for diagnostic labs and hospitals in scaling up molecular techniques like RT-PCR or sequencing are the high operational costs and delayed turnaround time. Currently used techniques are complex- they use multi-step protocols (3–5 steps), require high temperature settings, complex and expensive machines, multiple reagents and skilled technicians, thereby restricting their demand in cost-constrained settings and leading to low profit margins for labs.

LAMP technology is a low cost alternative to PCR technology and has the potential to be used at the Point of Care (PoC). While PCR needs to incorporate controlled heating cycles for amplification, DLAMP, D-NOME’s proprietary technology, enables amplification of DNA/RNA at room temperature without the use of any complex machinery.

The startup has been able to achieve this by using synthetic biology and advanced protein engineering techniques. The technology has shown very high sensitivity and specificity. The company has also built the expertise to design proprietary primers specific for different disease profiles including COVID-19, TB (various strains), Hospital Acquired Infections (Antimicrobial Resistant Strains) and many more.