Earlier this month I attended the 70th annual conference of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) in Chicago on behalf of Sona Nanotech.
With more than 200 new product introductions and more than 200 scientific and educational sessions, the AACC Annual Scientific Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo is the largest global scientific conference and tradeshow in the field of laboratory medicine.
It was an amazing experience to attend such an event, which was on a scale I had never experienced before, with more than 2,000 visitors and hundreds of exhibitors.
While there I met with more than 50 companies who were interested in learning more about Sona and our products and services, receiving samples of our gold and even working with us. As a result, we now have multiple new and exciting collaborations in the works.
It was exciting that so many people had already heard about Sona’s success or read about our recent growth, and they were also pleasantly surprised that a Canada-based company was doing so well and being so innovative.
Sona’s unique gold nanorods attracted a lot of interest from the companies I met with, particularly for their multiplexing capabilities. Our nanorods offer clear visual readings, distinct colour patterns, and greater sensitivity, all of which are in demand by test developers.
Everybody is looking to take lateral flow diagnostics to the next level and everybody wants their tests to be multiplexed. Most of the companies I spoke to are having issues with gold nanoparticles and latex beads, which just can’t produce the results they want. They want different biomarkers and different types of flow on one test strip, which they can’t achieve with current offerings.
Few of them are aware that gold nanorods can produce multiple colours making them ideal for multiplexing. We have a real opportunity to educate the lateral flow diagnostics market about the incredible potential of Sona’s gold nanorods.
It is clear to me after my time at AACC that lateral flow is a very competitive market and everybody is looking for the next advancement in technology. It is also clear that Sona Nanotech is perfectly placed to take advantage of that.
If you would like to explore collaboration opportunities with Sona, email me: anu@sonanano.com