Grove Allergy Tests
30% of UK adults suffer from an allergy. The World Health Organisation predicts this will rise to 50% by 2050. Hospital admissions across Europe have risen by a factor of 7 in a decade. An allergy epidemic?
The symptoms of an allergy are associated with the familiar histamine release, though they can become much more debilitating. But what is the cause? There are hundreds of airborne and food-based allergens.
A primary allergy such as to birch pollen can also trigger secondary food allergies (20 in this case, called ‘oral allergy syndrome’).
Lab Screening Tests for 300 Allergies
Grove Allergy Tests is based the Grove Medical Laboratory, Cardiff Medicentre (University Hospital site), where lab tests are run. Grove’s ambitious aim is to become the world’s number one allergy testing company.
Alongside lab screening, Grove is developing a suite of lateral flow tests for selected key allergies, to be available in 2028 after CE approval.
Grove’s first service is lab-screening of blood samples, currently collected by independent GPs and Clinics, against 300 allergies. The test detects specific antibodies (IgE’s) with the ALEX3 instrument from MADx of Austria, the gold standard in the field. This kind of test displaces the classical skin-prick tests and is much faster, more comfortable and more comprehensive. MADx provides equipment and does not offer testing, Grove is one of their delivery partners.
Although food "sensitivity" tests are heavily promoted at the present time in the media, they are simply based on IgG detection and thus measure exposure of the patient to an allergen (not an allergic reaction). Specific IgE tests which are specific to each allergic reaction may be regarded as far superior.
The Grove price for a 300-allergy test is £220 per sample received. A price of less than £1 per allergy is highly competitive. Grove works with Independent GPs and is exploring partnerships with pharmacies as well as home blood collection.
Grove needs to receive samples by post or courier within 2 days of blood collection; then will provide a full report to the customer within 2 days. Grove provides packaging for a standard yellow-top blood tube and addressed, Royal Mail 24-hour bags for samples.
For a private consultation with a GP to discuss the allergy screening results, Grove has partnered with the IGP independent GP at Cardiff.
Rapid Prototyping Lab for Lateral Flow Tests
In parallel with the Lab Screening of blood samples from GPs, clinics and pharmacies, Grove has also established a Rapid Prototyping Lab (RPL) for the design and development of tests to be used at home or point of care (from 2028). Projects in the RPL include prototyping of multiplex, multicoloured tests for key allergies, and early development of critical tests (e.g. for early stage cancer detection) in collaboration with the Cardiff University Medical School. In both cases Grove’s own coloured gold nanoparticles are used as visualisation agents, so the tests unite Grove’s expertise in nanomaterials with Grove’s focus on diagnostics.