Ser-Col; from finger to laboratory; personalized and automated serum collection for laboratory diagnostics
95% of blood collected via venipuncture is not used for diagnostic measurements, and needs to be disposed as biohazardous waste by incineration, which is incredibly wasteful and taxing on our environment. In Europe, there is an urgent need for innovative approaches that engage vulnerable groups and increase access to infectious disease testing by breaking-down social and logistic barriers to healthcare. The decentralization of healthcare have created a need for a simple, safe, standardized and painless collection of serum specimens. The Ser-Col® is a novel serum separation device that simplifies and combines both blood collection and serum separation.  With a few drops of blood from a finger stick, serum can be collected which is stable for several months prior to analysis of clinically relevant serum parameters, and thereby reducing biohazardous waste production by 50%. Ser-Col simplifies and reduces the cost of serum sampling by replacing the blood tube, trained personnel, cold storage, and centrifuge with a reliable and easy to use device that links target population to centralized diagnostics laboratories, ultimately leading to the long-term reduction of the burden of infectious diseases. The SCAUT consortium will scale up manufacturing to deliver a market ready version of the Ser-Col and validate its clinical performance against existing standards. To ensure market uptake the consortium will develop an automated serum processing platform for optimal compatibility with exciting laboratory diagnostic equipment and facilitate adoption of Ser-Col by healthcare professionals. This will accelerate commercialization, attract investors and to establish industry partnerships required to realize the full potential of the technology. The SCAUT project seeks to obtain €3 million to finalize the analytical and clinical validation and go-to-market of the Ser-Col® device. The estimated cumulative profit is €463.813 in 2023 increasing towards €18 million in 2027.