InstaSwab™ superior elution and absorption

Recent independent lab results placed InstaSwab™ on top of leading flocked swabs in the market, with at least 20 times more bacterial elution when used for collecting and transfer samples. The strong capillary hydraulics between the fibers of OPT’s GM polymer increases maximum fluid sample uptake and rapid release.

For example, when collecting a mixture of liquids and solids, InstaSwab™ quickly released captured specimens ,while conventional swabs, with the dense fiber structures, trapped specimens with limited release. These properties were quantified with a microbial model: the swabs were used to collect from a series of dilutions of a bacteria standard dispersion and transfer the samples into an elution buffer. After each transfer, the colony forming bacteria were counted. It was found that InstaSwab™ consistently outperformed other types of swabs in this task. When the pathogen concentrations were low, for instance, at a hundred bacteria per milliliter of water, InstaSwab™ not only provided an abundance of collection, but also were able to reliably elute the specimens into the buffer for useful analysis.

InstaSwab’s™ high elution efficiency is essential to increase the sensitivity of diagnostics, reducing the false negative rates, by providing higher concentration of samples in a much shorter period of time. This feature is also indispensable for the point-of-care diagnostics with rapid tests. You can request a copy of the lab results here.

1. Based on NIH protocol NS Adsorption Protocol 1.1 “Absorption Test Protocol for Nasal Swabs”.
2. Liquid/solid separation ratio is defined as the weight loss after gently rolling the sample-loading swabs.
3. Based on M40-A2 and NIH protocol NS Elution Protocol 1.1 “Elution Test Protocol for Nasal Swabs” against an absorbent surface for ten seconds.