Akonni Ribbon Cutting

I went to the ribbon cutting ceremony at Akonni Biosystems Friday afternoon. They have a beautiful new facility, converting an old Warehouse on Sagner Ave, across from McCutheon’s (who are also planning a major expansion) and along the Carroll Creek Promenade.

There were a number of dignitaries form across the county, with a keynote address by Dr Roscoe Bartlett. The facility itself appears to be a modest storefront from street level. Through the double entry doors is a large, open foyer with glass lined offices against the wall and a “cube farm” for the the staff towards the back wall leading into the labs. They have a number of clean suites for production because their technology is PCR-based an needs to avoid adulteration by contaminating DNA.

Their product is a slick, smaller than a credit card, plastic micro array and a bench top reader. Samples are collected using a liquid sample medium, and pipetted onto the sample card, insertred in the reader and a result is provided. They have a number of different cards with different platforms for infectious diseases to biowarfare bugs.

I also had a chance to talk to a number of the people working for Akonni and found them all excited and enthusiastic about their product and technology platform.

I wish them the best of luck. I am so thrilled to see actual Manufacturing (I know this is s dirty word in the Biotech world, but that’s what it is) moving back into Downtown Frederick.

Here is a link to a nice article in the FNP today about the event