An intriguing technological development offers a new solution to one of the most common home tests in the world. An innovative pregnancy test, Sally Stick, offers to replace the traditional urine test with a simple saliva test.
Now, the Israeli development joins another line of advanced, blue-and-white tests, including: Dimension, which developed an innovative test that knows how to differentiate between a bacterium and a virus, and Nova-Med, which developed a home test that diagnoses whether chest pain is a heart attack.
The Israeli start-up company from Jerusalem worked on the intriguing development for a long time, under the leadership of Prof. Aharon Palamon, president of Slignostix and vice president for research and development at the Hebrew University. This is when there is no other company or product in the world with commercial approval besides them.
“We have been working on the technology of this test for about a decade,” explains Prof. Flamon. Deputy CEO Dr. Guy Meirovich added: “There’s no need to go through a bathroom. It’s more aesthetic and more pleasant. My wife once told me: ‘There’s not always pee either. So that’s also something.”
“During the test, the woman should insert a swab into her mouth until it is filled with the saliva that is secreted. After about 5 minutes – there is a result. “This test can identify with a level of accuracy over 96% of late periods,” explains Dr. Meirovich.
So why hasn’t such a test been developed until today?
The reason is that saliva, unlike blood or urine, has different types of substances that create a mask that makes it difficult to detect the signs of pregnancy. “The fog doesn’t let you see, so we developed the methods to remove the fog,” Prof. Flamon emphasizes. “That’s how you can see the markers we’re looking for. In fact, we cracked the problem that makes Rock not work with existing platforms.”
What’s new?
Instead of changing the tests to fit the rock, the Israeli startup managed to change the rock to fit the tests. This is through special filters that “disperse the fog”. It may sound simple, but we emphasize again that we are talking about research and development that lasted about a decade.
The Israeli test began to be sold several months ago in Great Britain, Ireland and Sweden. In the shadow of the war, it reaches the shelves in Israel only now. The price of the test: 25 shekels.
