Victor Minton and Rudy Rodriguez at AAD's Research Triangle Park laboratory
Company Overview
AAD was founded in July, 2001 to develop and commercialize exclusively licensed proprietary technology for the diagnosis of valuable-farm-animal diseases, including those that affect milk and milk products. The technology was invented by Eli Whitney Award and R&D 100 Award-winners Professors Robert A. Levine & Steven C. Wardlaw. Subsequent development over four years was jointly funded by healthcare technology leaders Becton Dickinson and Battelle, creating a powerful intellectual property portfolio. AAD’s founder Rudy Rodriguez is a co-inventor of some of those improvements. The technology, now called the Universal Diagnostic Platform, UDP™, was originally developed for human point-of-care diagnostics. AAD has further expanded this patent portfolio with the integration of additional cellular analysis capabilities to provide a revolutionary, on-site platform for the health monitoring of valuable farm animals.
Utilizing the licensed base technology, AAD is in the early phases of commercialization of its first farm based diagnostic system, SCC+™, intended for detection and diagnosis of mastitis (an economically costly infection of milk-producing mammary glands) in dairy cows. The system, consisting of a Reader and a disposable Cartridge, will be an suitable for use in farm environments; inexpensive, portable, rapid and easily used with minimal operator training, unlike that required for typical, centralized laboratory equipment. Numerous clinical trials have validated the system’s competitive advantages and the unique benefits of the rapid diagnostic information provided to assist in management of dairy operations.
AAD’s portfolio of patents and exclusive licenses, which combine concepts from immunology, hematology, optical imaging, and material science, the company has identified opportunities for several other applications beyond bovine, equine and porcine testing.