31 October 2014 - 31 October 2014 – US diagnostic testing provider BCR Diagnostics unveiled Thursday the discovery of Fiber-based Internal Reflection (FiBIR), or what the company calls an unprecedented optical phenomenon that can revolutionise the growing field of fluorescence-based testing.

The technology has demonstrated a 50-fold amplification of fluorescent signal, making it exceptionally sensitive and cost-effective.

BCR Diagnostics' vice president and chief scientific officer, Dr. Boris Rotman, said that FiBIR technology will propel the development of next-generation fluorometers to be used across the life science industry in applications ranging from live cell imaging, to PCR, ELISA and Next Generation Sequencing. The company plans to offer royalty-based, non-exclusive licences for both R&D and marketing, he noted.

As Rorman explained, in BCR Diagnostics' prototype fluorometer, FiBIR occurs in a proprietary cartridge engineered to hold a 12-µl sample. The company plans other physical configurations, such as automated fluorometers using FiBIR cartridges for nanolitre samples as well as multi-sample cartridges for high-throughput analysis. The company estimates FiBIR fluorometers will retail under USD 1,000 (EUR 795.216), he added.

Highly efficient use of excitation light and quantification of fluorescence by digital imaging are among the distinguishing features of FiBIR amplification. The R&D leading to the FiBIR fluorometer was supported in part by an SBIR Phase I award from the National Institutes of Health.