LabShares with partners in COVID-19 research

DOTS, Mantle Biotech, and NowAware Selected to Join LabShares

NEWTON, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–LabShares Newton, a shared office and laboratory incubator for emerging biotechnology and life science companies, today announced that it has selected three startup companies developing COVID-19 diagnostics to receive free lab space. The companies, DOTS, Mantle Biotech, and NowAware, will receive three months of free access to a lab bench in LabShares fully-equipped BL2 lab space, including access to tissue culture facilities, a full set of laboratory equipment and related resources. The goal of this initiative is to support small biotech companies and academic researchers conducting critical COVID-19 research to address the coronavirus pandemic.

“We are excited to welcome Mantle Biotech, DOTS and NowAware to LabShares to help support timely and important COVID-19 research,” said Jeff Behrens, Founder and CEO of LabShares Newton. “We launched this initiative to aid researchers impacted by recent lab closures due to the coronavirus crisis. We are pleased to be able to provide free, term-limited lab space to support these early-stage companies as they work to develop essential diagnostics tests for COVID-19, one of the most urgent health issues of our time.”

The selected companies are outlined below.

• DOTS Technology Corp is a startup democratizing science by unlocking the power of point-of-care detection. With a focus on developing diagnostics for severe food allergies, DOTS is applying its novel protein detection technology to target COVID-19 viral RNA.

• Mantle Biotech is developing heat-stable, mass-manufacturable biological reagents for the detection of coronavirus proteins in patient samples, enabling the high-throughput production of rapid, low-cost, and instrument-free diagnostic assays.

• NowAware, a subsidiary of Bambu Global, is developing a rapid point-of-need detection diagnostic test that will enable both consumers and healthcare professionals to detect COVID-19 within a sample in minutes, if not seconds, using its proprietary color-changing expertise.