Abbott announces it has been named the overall Gold winner of the 2009 Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Awards for its Ibis T5000 Biosensor system, which is designed to detect and characterize a broad range of infectious agents in a given sample, including viruses, bacteria and fungi.
"Abbott is dedicated to pursuing innovation to find meaningful solutions that improve lives," said Stafford O’Kelly, head of Abbott’s molecular diagnostics business. "This technology represents scientific innovation at its very best, and Abbott is honored to receive this important award."
Abbott’s Ibis system (now marketed under the PLEX-ID trade name) was singled out for the top honor, in part, because it promises to alert health officials to new disease strains, and may also guard against bioterrorism and enable hospitals to identify antibiotic-resistant bacteria in its environment.
The Wall Street Journal reports that since the first system was completed in 2005, the technology has "been deployed in 20 sites around the US, including the Centers for Disease Control. This spring, the device helped the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego to identify the first two cases of the H1N1 swine flu in the US"
Source: Abbott
