Seek Labs Announces Publication in Nature Communications Validating ANINA™, a Room-Temperature, Instrument-Free Amplification Diagnostic Technology Designed to Deliver PCR-Level Sensitivity at the Point of Need

Seek Labs, a private TechBio company building programmable platforms to decode, program, and resolve diseases, announced the publication of a peer-reviewed manuscript in Nature Communications describing Annexing Isothermal Nucleotide Amplification, the proprietary intensification chemistry which powers its SeekIt molecular analytic platform.

"For decades, molecular diagnostics have forced a compromise between performance and accessibility," said Jared Bauer, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Seek Labs. "ANINA changes that equation. It delivers the sensitivity and specificity of molecular testing in a format that needs no equipment and no lab. The same chemistry can also run on standard lab instruments at two to four times the speed of qPCR, so the value extends into high-throughput laboratory settings as well."

Each molecular test, regardless of setting, depends on four essential steps: capture, target, amplify, and read. Conventionally, those steps need particular devices, complex workflows, and trained operators inside a laboratory. SeekIt integrates all four in a single molecular diagnostics platform. At the center of the platform is ANINA, a patented amplification technology built around a new mechanism that runs a complete molecular test from identifying the target to reading the result in a single reaction at room temperature. Unlike conventional molecular tests, which need a separate identification step after amplification, ANINA's probe does both jobs at once: it supports the copying process and remains attached to the outputs, enabling a positive or negative answer to be read directly from a paper strip without additional enzymes, heat, or processing steps.

"This is a chemistry advance, not a smaller box for an existing test," said Annie Roy, Ph.D., Vice President of Diagnostic Research at Seek Labs and corresponding author of the publication. "We asked whether a test could have the accuracy of qPCR and the simplicity of an antigen test. ANINA is the answer. What gave us confidence wasn't any single result; it was that the same chemistry held up across bacteria, viruses, and very different sample types. These results point to ANINA as a foundation for molecular testing across healthcare, veterinary medicine, global health, and biosecurity."

The Nature Communications publication characterizes ANINA in terms of pathogen types, sample matrices, and readout formats, testing two DNA viruses, an RNA virus, and a bacterial pathogen in shrimp tissue, pooled human saliva, and simulated human urine. Identification was established using both instrument-free lateral-flow strips and real-time fluorescence readout on a standard qPCR device.

Key findings related to ANINA reported in the publication include:

• High analytical sensitivity and specificity: Identified as few as one to ten copies of viral DNA in a patient saliva sample, the level of infection present in the initial stages of disease, before many quick tests detect it, and specifically identified a bacterial target in a separate urine sample with no false positives.
• Equipment-free, ambient-temperature operation: It delivered a positive or negative output at room temperature with no laboratory tools, using only a paper strip.
• Lab-grade accuracy with faster turnaround: Matched qPCR’s quantitative precision in a real-time format while returning outputs two to four times faster on the same devices.
• Real-world accuracy, confirmed in a natural infection: Detected early-stage infection in a living host (shrimp infected with White Spot Syndrome Virus) in under 45 minutes using only disposable components and no powered equipment, outperforming a commercially available rapid antigen test run on the same samples.

The SeekIt molecular diagnostic platform is presently under advancement and is not authorized or cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for diagnostic applications. Human-pathogen data described in the publication were generated using contrived sample matrices. ANINA has not yet been assessed in human clinical trials.

Based on these findings, Seek Labs is originally developing SeekIt toward uses in respiratory diagnostics and biosecurity, with a focus on surroundings where rapid, lab-independent molecular testing most directly affects results.

According to Towards Healthcare, the Lateral Flow Assays Market is projected to experience significant growth, with estimates suggesting the market size will increase from USD 14.23 billion in 2026 to approximately USD 27.40 billion by 2035, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.94% from 2026 to 2035, driven by lateral flow tests are routinely applied to identifies infections caused by viruses, bacteria, fungi, or protozoa by recognizing particular antigens or antibodies in physical fluids like blood, saliva, or nasal secretions. Lateral flow tests identify a variety of substances, involving recreational drugs such as THC, cocaine, and opioids, as well as prescription medications. They are broadly applied in workplace testing, roadside law enforcement, emergency rooms, and rehabilitation programs. Lateral flow tests are easy, versatile, and affordable diagnostic devices that continue to advance.

About SeekIt

SeekIt is Seek Labs’ molecular point-of-care diagnostic platform intended to bring testing out of laboratories and to the point of care. Built for rapidity, precision, portability, and scalability, SeekIt integrates Annexing Isothermal Nucleotide Amplification (ANINA), the organization’s patented amplification chemistry, with sample extraction and lateral-flow detection into a streamlined system designed for rapid deployment across clinical, public health, and field environments.

About Seek Labs

Seek Labs is a TechBio organization building the technology to decode, program, and resolve disorder. At the core of this technology is an AI-based intelligence layer that analyzes and translates sequences into actionable information, informing two deployment layers in the sequence ablation therapeutics (SAT) and molecular detection. Composed, these expertise form a continuous loop where genomic information is decoded, translated into therapeutic and diagnostic outputs, and refined through real-world deployment.

Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Seek Labs is a proud member of BioHive, Utah’s cooperative life sciences ecosystem. Together with partners, building rapid, smarter services for the world’s most urgent health complexities.

A recent report by Towards Healthcare highlights that the lateral flow assays market is growing, as lateral flow assays (LFAs) can be applied for the identification of haptens, proteins, nucleic acids and amplicons. LFAs are well developed as significant devices in healthcare, veterinary, food, agricultural and environmental settings and for use in industrial diagnostics. LFAs are simple; the device has a complex construction, and many significant elements required to be considered while instrumental design. The most important elements of the assay are the antibodies and the membrane, but attention should be paid to all of the supplies used to confirm the compatibility and consistency of the product. An LFA is generally used for initial screening, which can be ensured later by a fully quantitative process. LFA tools can be evaluated using parameters like sensitivity, specificity, and effectiveness.