Following the United States, Europe approves the patent on the Group’s PCR-HRM molecular fingerprinting technology.
Helyx Industries has received approval from the European Patent Office (EPO) for European patent no. 17768527.8, “Molecular fingerprinting methods to detect and genotype DNA targets through polymerase chain reaction”. Following the U.S. grant announced in May, the patent family now also reaches the second major market for molecular diagnostics.
The technology
Helyx’s molecular fingerprinting technology identifies and distinguishes multiple targets in a single multiplex PCR reaction: different strains of the same pathogen, pathogens from different genera, and genetic variants. Each target is recognised by its own melting “fingerprint”. The system combines primers designed to generate amplicons with distinct melting temperatures, a proprietary reaction chemistry based on an intercalating dye, and High Resolution Melting (HRM) analysis.
The advantage is practical. Instead of labelled probes, it uses an intercalating dye and reads the result on a single fluorescence channel. The test therefore runs on any real-time thermocycler with adequate HRM resolution, with no dedicated instrumentation required. At the same time, it is natively integrated into Hyris System™, the Group’s proprietary solution combining the bCUBE™ qPCR instrument and the bAPP™ software platform. The approach also includes specific solutions to reduce primer-dimers and a calibrator that aligns melting analysis across different instruments.
Applications
The reference application is human papillomavirus (HPV) genotyping, which the European patent protects both as a method and as a diagnostic kit, with 20 claims.
The molecular fingerprinting approach is not tied to a single target. It applies wherever multiple targets need to be distinguished in a single reaction, such as sexually transmitted infections and respiratory infections. This technology underpins the Vytro Division’s offering in multiplex molecular diagnostics.
“Following the United States, European approval completes the protection of our HRM multiplexing approach in the two main markets for molecular diagnostics. It rewards years of work by our R&D team on a technology that is now at the heart of Vytro’s offering.”
— Lorenzo Colombo, CTO of Helyx Industries
Once the grant is published in the European Patent Bulletin, the Group will proceed with validation in the countries of interest. Helyx Industries will continue to update the market on developments in its patent strategy.
