Endocrinology at our core.
Magali Wolff
Head of Global Reagent
Marketing & Support
Accurate results for laboratories, peace of mind for users and, most importantly, support for clinicians treating patients with a wide range of endocrine disorders. Over the years, IBL International, part of Tecan group, has become a leading expert in the development and manufacture of immunoassay and LC-MS technologies for endocrinology. Originally founded in 1983, the company initially supplied radioactive immunoassays for clinical endocrinology applications, and has since expanded its expertise to develop and manufacture ELISAs, RIAs, LIAs and LC-MS tests to measure steroids, peptides, proteins and other hormones. Endocrinology is still very much at the core of the business today, and Tecan is placing a huge emphasis on developing novel solutions to ensure it stays at the forefront of modern diagnostics.
Steadfast support for endocrinology
Endocrinology is a diverse and complex field, dealing with all aspects of the endocrine glands and hormones, and covering numerous diseases and hormone imbalances, including fertility assessment, bone metabolism, hypertension and other metabolic disorders. When the company started developing and manufacturing its first RIAs in the 1980s, this approach was considered the gold standard diagnostic tool. RIAs are still a highly specific and precise method for measuring many steroid hormones and other analytes, but working with radioactive materials always carries a risk. The company therefore started developing novel, non-radioactive methods – such as microplate-based ELISAs – in the 1990s in direct response to the demands of its laboratory customers.
Top product
ELISA: 25-OH-Vitamin D
- Field: Bone and mineral metabolism
- Sample type: Adult human serum
- Intended use: Quantitative measurement of total 25-OH vitamin D (vitamin D2 and D3) in human serum as a physiological marker to aid in the diagnosis of vitamin D deficiency.
- Benefits: Calibrated to the LC-MS reference method, and adaptable to open ELISA processors. It will be IVDR ready soon.
Ushering in a new frontier in specialty diagnostics
Immunoassays are highly accurate and widely used for many analytes across clinical research and diagnostics, but can sometimes lack specificity due to the subtle molecular differences between some surface antigens. Many clinical laboratories are therefore considering mass spectrometry to improve specificity of hormone diagnostics, and LC-MS is beginning to be recognized as the new reference method for endocrinology. MS allows deeper insights into a sample, by breaking down the molecules and analyzing them by weight and retention time to clearly identify the different steroid hormones present.
Tecan has extensive experience in LC-MS workflows from across our life sciences and diagnostics businesses, and is using this knowhow to offer labs all over the world the best and latest technologies in endocrinology. For example, our Steroid Panel LC-MS Kit is designed to measure 18 different clinically relevant steroids from a single sample, and preparation can be automated using the Resolvex® A200 Positive Pressure Workstation to save time and precious resources. It is extremely important to us not just to offer best-in-class assays and workflow solutions, but also to provide clinicians with actionable insights that help with accurate diagnoses and, ultimately, improved patient care.
Top product
ELISA: 17-OH-Progesterone (17-OHP)
- Field: Gynecology and pediatric endocrinology
- Sample type: Human serum and plasma
- Intended use: Quantitative determination of 17-OHP to aid in the differential diagnosis of congenital adrenal hyperplasia in infants and children, as well as adults who develop symptoms of the disease later in life, such as infertility.
- Benefits: Robust assay, excellent correlation to mean ring trial results including the gold standard method LC-MS, IVDR ready soon.
Quality is key
Immunoassays remain a vital piece of the diagnostic puzzle, and most labs still work exclusively with ELISAs, or use them as cost-effective screening tools before confirmation with LC-MS. To this end, Tecan continues to support these customers across the spectrum with high quality products and expert advice. Understanding both the strengths and traditional limitations of ELISAs, we aim to use LC-MS as a reference method to validate our assays and ensure reliable results. Calibrating immunoassays using MS ensures that we can select the highest specificity and affinity antibodies for each target hormone, improving their precision and sensitivity. This means that, even if a laboratory doesn’t have access to an MS instrument, it still has a solution that yields similar results. We also provide an inter-laboratory proficiency testing program, helping laboratories to validate their testing workflows and ensuring that we maintain close contact with them to better understand their emerging needs.
Summary
Tecan is a global expert in endocrinology diagnostics, thanks to decades of innovation and our unwavering dedication to improving patients’ health and lives. We constantly invest in the latest technologies to develop cutting-edge solutions that meet the daily needs of clinical research and diagnostics labs around the world. We combine our in-depth understanding of endocrinology and laboratory workflows with recent advances in LC-MS technologies to develop a broad portfolio of immunoassays that are compatible with many sample types, including serum, plasma, saliva and urine. These provide accurate results for laboratories, peace of mind for users and, most importantly, support for clinicians treating patients with a wide range of endocrine disorders.