Veterinary · wildlife, herds, pets
Diagnostics for patients who cannot tell you.
Animals hide illness, and most animal tests still mean a needle, a lab and days of waiting. The same crystal reporters that work in human field programs can test a living deer for chronic wasting disease, screen a herd at the pen, and turn a cat's litter box into a daily health check.
Four programs, four stages
What is done, what is next.
Veterinary diagnostics is a whole new ball game for the platform. One piece is already published; the rest range from active development to early concepts.
In development · chronic wasting disease
Prion testing for living deer.
Chronic wasting disease is a fatal prion disease spreading through deer and elk across North America. Today it is mostly confirmed after death, from lymph nodes or brain tissue, and the most sensitive amplification tests take days in a specialized lab. Wildlife agencies and deer farms need an answer in the field, from a living animal.
Live animals
Move from post-mortem lymph-node testing to blood and saliva from living deer.
Answers in 30 to 60 minutes
Near-field results instead of samples shipped to a lab and days of processing.
The environment
Prions persist in soil and on surfaces. Pens, feeders and water need testing too.
| Method | Time | Sensitivity | Live animals | In the field |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ELISA / IHC | Fast | Lower | Post-mortem only | Lab |
| RT-QuIC / PMCA | Days | Extremely high | Yes | Specialized lab |
| Microfluidic chip, electrical readout | 30–60 min | Moderate | Emerging | Noise-sensitive |
| Same chip, crystal optical readout (target) | 30–60 min | Approaching RT-QuIC | Blood and saliva | Rugged, low power |
Last row: performance targets for the development program, not measured results.
Try it · active concentration
Pull the prions to the reader.
Prions in blood or saliva are scarce and drift at random. The chip's electrodes create a field (dielectrophoresis) that pulls them into one small trapping zone, right where the crystal-labeled antibodies and the laser are waiting.
Illustration of dielectrophoretic concentration.
How the CWD chip works
Proven fluidics. A brighter signal.
The program keeps a microfluidic chip that has already been shown to move, enrich and trap prions, and replaces its noise-sensitive electrical readout with a laser-excited crystal reporter. Measuring how long the glow lasts, not just how bright it is, separates the real signal from the clutter of a field sample.
Published · One Health
Already tested in the wild.
Nine-banded armadillos carry the bacterium that causes leprosy and can pass it to people in the southern United States. In 2021 a study co-authored by Paul Corstjens used the same quantitative crystal test from the human leprosy program to detect and monitor infection in wild armadillos. The test did not need to be reinvented for an animal; only the sample changed.
Same test, new species
Antibody to the leprosy bacterium measured quantitatively in armadillo samples.
Monitoring over time
Infection followed in animals, the kind of tracking wildlife programs need.
Concept · herds and livestock
At the pen, not the lab.
Herd health decisions are made on the farm. The human TB tests on this platform measure immune signals such as interferon-gamma, the same signal used in standard laboratory testing for tuberculosis in cattle. A pen-side crystal reader could bring that kind of host-response testing out to the animals.
Tuberculosis screening
Host-response panels adapted from the published human TB work.
Udder health
Inflammation markers measured in milk at the parlor.
CWD herd status
Live-animal saliva screening for certified herds.
Fewer needles
Saliva and nasal swabs where blood draws are hard or stressful.
Concept · dogs · gut health
Six answers from one stool sample.
Stool is the hardest sample in veterinary medicine: dark, lumpy, full of things that glow on their own. Today a dog with diarrhea gets a microscope, a single-target snap test or a send-out lab panel, and parasites that shed only now and then are easily missed. One six-strip cartridge, read by infrared, could check parasites, parvovirus, gut inflammation and digestion at once, and track them over time.
Trends, not snapshots
A baseline for every dog.
Parasites shed in bursts, so a single test on the wrong day reads negative. Weekly readings learn each dog’s normal, catch the spike when it happens, show whether inflammation rose with it, and confirm that both returned to baseline after treatment.
- Baseline. The first readings set this dog’s normal.
- Event. A parasite spike lines up with rising calprotectin.
- Clearance. After treatment both fall back: proof it worked.
Owner · reader · veterinarian
Supports the vet. Never replaces them.
The cartridge is a wellness and early-warning tool, not a diagnosis. Owners and shelters test often; the readings go to the veterinarian, who decides what to confirm in the clinic and how to treat. Visits start with data instead of a guess.
- A trend monitor and early-warning screen
- A way to bring the vet in sooner
- A diagnosis
- A replacement for clinic or lab testing
Concept. The six targets are design proposals and the readings shown are invented for illustration. Not a cleared veterinary diagnostic.
Concept · pets at home
The litter box that checks on your cat.
Cats are experts at hiding illness. Kidney disease, diabetes and urinary problems are common, and often found late. A litter box with a replaceable crystal-test pad under the filter could read a few drops of urine every day, learn your cat's normal, and send a note to your phone when something changes, so you call the vet early instead of late.
Concept. Markers shown are design targets.
A chew, not a blood draw
For markers that also appear in saliva, a swab or a test chew could replace a needle for routine checks.
Questions that usually need a vet visit
Simple first-line checks at home, with the numbers sent to your vet so the visit, when needed, starts with data.
DisposableDx for animals
The same single-use patch could sample through thin skin, such as an ear, without a blood draw.
Partners wanted
From the forest to the living room.
We are looking for wildlife agencies, animal-health companies, deer and livestock producers and pet-care brands to bring crystal diagnostics to animals.
All diagnostics programs
One reporter. People, animals and the environment.
See the overview and readiness map →Intelligent Material Solutions invents the crystals and holds the intellectual property; NovaVera Corp. makes and sells them under an exclusive license. The field-proven lateral-flow tests are for research use only. Everything marked in development or concept is not a cleared medical, veterinary or environmental test; any product would need validation and, where required, regulatory clearance.
