Contacts

• contact: Camilo Francesco Gianinazzi
• telephone: +39 0371 4662 535
• email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
• website: www.ipadlab.eu

Company profile

International Plant Analysis and Diagnostics srl (IPADLAB) is the first Italian biotech company specialized in worldwide phytodiagnostic services.

IPADLAB is localized within the start-up incubator “Alimenta” of the Lodi Technology Park, the cluster of excellence in the field of agro-food biotech in Italy and at the European leve. It has been generated as a spin-off of the University of Milan and is backed by a VC investment.

It is accredited as Phytodiagnostics Laboratory under the Italian national regulations (DM 14/04/1007) and it has been ISO9001:2008 certified (Bureau Veritas n. IT237593) and operates according to ISO17025 standards that are undergoing accreditation.

IPADLAB is active in four different areas :

1. direct diagnostic services for plant certification;
2. PLUS diagnostics services;
3. production and commercialization of molecular biology based diagnostic kits;
4. R&D on new technologies for plant diagnostics.

Services and products

Services, besides direct custom requested analyses, take advantage of a new technology, called “pathogen disarming”. Such technology has permitted to develop the “PLUS (Pre Lab Unit System)” business model, which allows plant samples to be transferred cross-borders in compliance with all the biosafety regulations. Furthermore PLUS is based on molecular biology tools and enables to perform more precise and sensitive analysis of the plant material. PLUS divides the diagnostic procedure in two steps: the first, simple phase of the diagnosis can be performed in delocalized “Pre-labs”, requiring small investment and very easy procedures. Pre-processed samples are then transferred to IPADLAB in Lodi where the specific, highly technological part of the analysis is completed, producing the final diagnostic readout. PLUS are currently being established at customer premises in Italy and in the world, offering to the partners reduced costs and full control over the sanitary management of their productions.

Kits catalogue currently comprises about fifteen products for the diagnosis of relevant plant diseases, including viruses and phytoplasmas of grapevine, bacterial canker of kiwifruit (PSA) and Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. michiganensis of tomatoes. R&D is boosting production pipeline, introducing new kits that either help laboratories implementing official diagnostic protocols by providing all-in-one, easy to use packages, or placing on the market innovative methods for the diagnosis of emerging pathogens. In this second case IPADLAB exploits the broad network of academic contacts both for the prototyping and the validation of kits. The products palette is going to expand up to twice the amount of currently commercialized kits within 2012.

IPADLAB philosophy is that increasing quality of productions is the key for supporting and improving competitiveness in the global economy. Sanitary control of plants is the only way for ensuring high quality of products by reducing the need of phytotherapeutic treatments and promoting sustainability of agriculture.