For decades, DNA testing has helped solve murders, identify rapists, and reunite families—just not quickly enough. It can take months or years from the collection of an evidentiary sample to obtaining final DNA results, stalling investigations, delaying justice, and deepening the distress of families searching for loved ones. While its impact is undeniable, traditional DNA analysis is slow and cumbersome, requiring hundreds of manual and complex molecular steps. Laboratories are overwhelmed, and literally hundreds of thousands of samples are backlogged, most never to be tested. ting concerns its serious limitations in diagnosing infectious diseases. During the COVID pandemic, billions of qPCR tests were performed. It may come as a surprise to learn that these tests were highly inaccurate. For example, leading Universities such as Johns Hopkins and NYU reported that widely-used COVID qPCR tests were unable to detect infected patients 40 – 50 percent of the time! Most everyone has a story of a friend or relative who clearly had COVID but either took many tests before testing positive or never tested positive—poor diagnostic technology was the culprit. These same ineffective qPCR and related tests are used to monitor the environment and patients for germs that might cause the next pandemic or be part of a biological attack. The risk is not theoretical— today, experts warn of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI, also referred to as bird flu) spreading around the world in cattle, chickens, and wild birds, reducing milk production, causing the price of eggs to skyrocket, and escalating concerns for a potential jump to humans. The tests that are used to detect the HPAI virus are the same kind of problematic qPCR tests that failed in COVID. It is clear that current DNA testing technology is simply not good enough. ANDE Corporation, a pioneering biotech company, is changing the paradigm for DNA testing. It has transformed the highly complex, multi-step process into a fully-automated Rapid DNA testing system that can be operated outside the lab by non-technical users to generate results that are more accurate and more informative than those from conventional technologies. The ANDE Rapid DNA system is so intuitive that just one minute is required to insert the samples, with results generated in under two hours. The system is already being used routinely in law enforcement, in police stations to rapidly identify suspects and process evidence, and at borders to prevent human trafficking. Rapid DNA is also used in disaster victim identification, with police officers and first responders performing identifications during the Maui and California wildfires and many other mass casualty events. These successes have now expanded use internationally, with broad adoption in many countries. In fact, Ukrainian police have utilized the ANDE system to identify over 15,000 war victims—100-fold more than using conventional forensic DNA technology. “For over a decade, our mission has been to bring speed, accuracy, capacity, and accessibility to DNA identification to make the world a safer place by protecting communities, preventing crime, and reuniting families,” says Richard Selden, MD, PhD, Founder and Chief Scientific Officer. “Now we’ve broadened our mission to improve and protect public health by adapting the commercial identification system to enable dramatically more effective DNA-based clinical diagnostics and biosecurity.”
Biomanufacturing
When Dr. Rao S. Bezwada, President of Bezwada Biomedical, began his career in polymer chemistry, he wasn’t following curiosity; he was setting up advances that would reshape surgery across the globe. After completing his Ph.D. in Chemistry at Stevens Institute of Technology, he joined Ethicon, a Johnson & Johnson company. There, his work led to the development of MONOCRYL®. This synthetic absorbable monofilament suture offered strength, flexibility, and reliable resorption, and soon became the global benchmark in wound closure. With more than $2 billion in sales and a Johnson Medal to its credit, MONOCRYL®. was a commercial success that showed how Dr. Bezwada’s approach to polymer design could redefine medicine. His ambitions, however, stretched well beyond sutures. In 2003, he founded Bezwada Biomedical in New Jersey, an ISO 13485-certified firm focused on custom, fully absorbable polymers. Today, the company works alongside medical device manufacturers, drug delivery innovators, and researchers in regenerative medicine, tissue engineering, biotech, and medtech, guided by its mission to engineer solutions that elevate patient outcomes. “We design polymers from the molecular level up, transforming breakthrough chemistry into reliable, absorbable solutions that meet medicine’s evolving needs and improve patient outcomes worldwide,” says Rao Bezwada, President, Bezwada Biomedical. Translating Chemistry into Cure Imagine glue designed not for paper, but for saving lives in the operating room. That idea became TissuBond™, an absorbable polyurethane adhesive built for tissue sealing and hemostasis. Its tunable properties in gelation, elasticity, and degradation give surgeons tools to perform delicate, minimally invasive procedures. Supported by NSF SBIR Phase I & II grants, TissuBond™ embodies the company’s ability to turn cutting-edge science into practical solutions. After sealing comes rebuilding tissue. The company’s use of bioinks for 3D bioprinting is equally transformative. Designed with customizable mechanical and hydrolytic properties, they enable scaffolds that closely mimic natural tissue environments, which are critical for regenerative medicine and even artificial organ prototypes. Alongside these, controlled-release polymers offer precise degradation and drug-delivery profiles, opening new possibilities for combination therapies..
Drug Discovery and Development
The race to bring new therapies and diagnostics to market is unceasing, but the pipeline? Not so much. Breakthroughs stall when fragmented supply chains, scale-up bottlenecks, and the complexity of novel modalities like mRNA and lipid nanoparticles collide with the realities of drug discovery and clinical testing. Assay development can’t keep pace with demand, diagnostics face unrelenting regulatory scrutiny, and researchers everywhere are under pressure to deliver faster, clinically ready solutions. Enter VION Biosciences, built to break the deadlock. It provides researchers, biotech firms, and diagnostics developers a one-stop, vertically integrated platform to de-risk and accelerate life-science research, drug R&D, diagnostic test development, and therapeutic production. “By solving for reliability, customization, regulatory standards, and end-to-end scalability, we help organizations to move from discovery to market with greater speed and confidence,” says Mark Thornton, CEO. The platform is designed with the full spectrum of life sciences in mind, serving four distinct end markets. The primary arena is drug discovery, where VION supports biopharmaceutical innovation across modalities such as mRNA vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, and emerging cell and gene therapies. Then comes drug development, where its Echelon Biosciences arm pushes the limits of lipid-mediated drug delivery systems, especially lipid nanoparticles that are central to next-generation mRNA therapies. Close behind is clinical diagnostics, with assay kits that address pressing needs in metabolic health, obesity, and women’s reproductive health, including IVF testing and related disorders. And finally, VION powers the broader research ecosystem, arming academic and government labs with the life science tools, particularly in translational medicine, where early discovery meets clinical application. From Discovery Partner to Scalable Manufacturing Innovator VION assists customers across the full innovation lifecycle, beginning with early-stage discovery and extending through large-scale commercialization. Organizations turn to VION when they face mission-critical needs for specialized reagents or materials, whether in drug delivery, diagnostics, or advanced testing platforms. Some clients approach it with a fairly specific idea—say, a custom reagent or assay. Others come with a more open-ended challenge: they know something isn’t working, but they aren’t sure what the solution should look like. Regardless of the scenario, VION’s approach is consistent, to collaborate closely to clarify the ideal outcome..
IN MY OPINION
Clinical Laboratory
Strengthening Infection Control; Insights and Strategies
Cynthia Mercado-Reyes, Manager of Infection Control Preventative Medicine, CarePoint Health System
LAST WORD
Clinical Laboratory
Embracing Innovation in Healthcare: Curiosity, Communication and the Power of Data
Yuri Pashchuk, Associate Chief Nursing Officer, AdventHealth
IN FOCUS
Forging the Future of Medicine: A New Era of Interoperability in Drug Development
A shift towards interoperability in drug development enhances data flow across discovery, clinical trials, and regulatory processes, ultimately accelerating the delivery of effective treatments to patients.
Rapid DNA as a Catalyst for Accelerated Discovery
Rapid DNA technology revolutionizes molecular biology by enabling on-site DNA profiling in under two hours, transforming fields like forensics, medicine, and global health through immediate genetic insights.
EDITORIAL
Rapid DNA and Drug Development Driving Precision and Patient Care
Next-generation DNA technologies are uncovering the architecture of life itself. By decoding entire genomes and translating genetic data into actionable insights, scientists are creating therapies tailored to individual biology rather than broad population trends. These advances are shortening the journey from concept to treatment, guiding drug developers toward more precise and less invasive solutions. At the same time, biodegradable polymers are transforming how therapies are delivered. Engineered to release medication at targeted sites and dissolve safely after use, they combine medical performance with environmental responsibility, reflecting a growing focus on sustainable innovation.
Artificial intelligence and computational modeling are further amplifying this shift. By predicting how compounds behave before they enter the lab, AI reduces trial-and-error and compresses traditional discovery timelines from years to months.
Driven by these trends, the global drug discovery services market is projected to reach around US $79.7 billion by 2034, growing at a CAGR of approximately 14.1 percent. The recombinant DNA technology market is expected to expand to about US $1.29 trillion by 2033, at a CAGR of around 5.1 percent. Meanwhile, the biodegradable polymer market, valued at US $8.34 billion in 2024, is projected to reach US $20.04 billion by 2031.
This magazine features thought leadership articles from Yuri Pashchuk, Associate Chief Nursing Officer at AdventHealth and Leslie Hurst, Associate Vice President and Specialty Pharmacy & PBM Strategy at Baptist Health System, who share insights on how data-driven patient care and integrated pharmacy strategies are transforming clinical outcomes and operational excellence.
We also highlight firms transforming forensic and clinical diagnostics. One such company, ANDE, stands out as a global leader in Rapid DNA technology, providing fully automated, portable systems that deliver DNA identification in under two hours, empowering law enforcement to accelerate investigations and bring closure to families.
In this edition, featuring leaders redefining drug development solutions, DNA technology and biodegradable polymer development services, we hope you find the right partner to meet your organization’s needs.
