Thermo Fisher Scientific has introduced new sample preparation solutions to help streamline and automate respiratory diagnostic testing.

The new Thermo Scientific KingFisher Apex Dx, an automated nucleic acid purification instrument, and Applied Biosystems MagMAX Dx Viral/Pathogen NA Isolation Kit for the purification of viral and bacterial pathogens from respiratory biological specimens and help improve preanalytical workflows for clinical laboratories.

They jointly provide an in vitro diagnostic (IVD) and in vitro diagnostic regulation (IVD-R) approved automated sample preparation solutions to laboratories for increased confidence in downstream results.

The high-throughput, flexible KingFisher Apex Dx system is designed to help scientific labs maximise consistency, reproducibility, and reliability while recovering quality nucleic acids for sensitive downstream applications.

It can automate the extraction of up to 24 or 96 DNA, protein, RNA, or cell samples and transitions from clinical research to diagnostics. It offers research use only and IVD software modes.  

Designed to integrate within a modular sample preparation process for real-time PCR analysis workflow, the system provides precise results while ensuring accurate data management and security features that comply with cybersecurity and diagnostic regulatory standards.

Furthermore, the MagMAX Dx Viral/Pathogen NA Isolation kit is designed to ensure reproducible results and is automation-compatible with the KingFisher Apex Dx.

By offering new advanced formulation, this kit can maximise nucleic acid yield from routinely tested respiratory pathogens and helps laboratories meet greener policies with REACH-compliant components.

At present, the kit is available in North America and is planned to be launched in other regions soon.

Thermo Fisher Scientific sample preparation vice-president and general manager Ellie Mahjubi said: “The KingFisher Apex Dx system builds on decades of product expertise and innovation customers have come to trust in our KingFisher instrument line.

“The combination of the Apex Dx system and the MagMAX Dx Viral/Pathogen NA Isolation Kit further simplifies sample preparation for clinical labs so they can have confidence in downstream results when testing for respiratory diseases.”

In August 2023, the company commercially introduced its fully integrated and automated mass spectrometry system, EXENTSolution.