Phadia Research & Development

The research and development at Phadia is carried out in Uppsala and Freiburg. It involves a wide range of disciplines to provide  increasingly reliable and precise answers for the physician, and faster more cost-effective technical solutions for the laboratory.

As active members of the international scientific and clinical communities, Phadia continually shares and contribute to the advancement of knowledge.

Research frequently involves close cooperation with leading world authorities in disciplines such as cell and molecular biology.

Allergy related work is largely centered around "the allergy march", focusing on the early identification of patients at risk, and the first signs of a developing inflammation and asthma.

The scientific research conducted within the field of autoimmunity is focused on molecular biology and is carried out in close cooperation with internationally well-known scientific groups.

Test technology
The idea is to detect extremely small concentrations of substances in the patient's blood which indicate a specific disease or condition. Technically, a specific substance in the patient's blood reacts with a solid chemically-activated foam. The chemical compound bound to the foam can either be an antigen, for example an allergen, or an antibody. The addition of a liquid tracer molecule (radioactive or enzyme-labelled) enables measurement of the specific substance.

Based on increasingly sophisticated clinical and laboratory needs, each component is continually refined in terms of clinical safety and efficacy as well as productivity, cost per test and ease of use in the laboratory. Taking advantage of recent developments in molecular biology, the use of synthetic or "recombinant" antigens is graudally being introduced for increased precision and cost-effective production.

To facilitate safe automated handling, the activated foam is placed inside an ImmunoCAP - a tiny, open-ended plastic capsule developed by Phadia.