LifeScanner featured on CBC radio and news

Sujeevan Ratnasingham, Associate Director at the Centre for Biodiversity Genomics and founder of LifeScanner spoke on CBC's The Morning Edition - K-W with Craig Norris Monday explaining how the LifeScanner Species Identification Kit allows users to use DNA identification to identify the organisms around them. The home-based DNA kit, which was also featured in a CBC news article and on CTV News Kitchener, was developed by University of Guelph Researchers and combines smartphone technology, a DNA identification kit and scientists who test the samples to provide users with information on the species around them.

Users submit samples to a LifeScanner lab where the DNA is extracted and compared to a global database, once the species is identified information is sent back to the user via a smartphone app. The simple process is allowing users to explore the diversity of life around them and has applications in detecting food fraud.

LifeScanner is the winner of the 2019 Gryphon’s LAAIR Pitch Competition Grand Prize and is a part of the Accelerator Guelph program. The Accelerator Guelph program works with teams to build successful, sustainable enterprises rooted in U of G research and is currently accepting applications for the next cohort.