OmniScope LTD, a ground-breaking AI-enabled biotech company on Tuesday announced the start of research and development of a medical diagnostics tool for COVID-19 in Malta, facilitated with the financial support of €1 million received from Malta Enterprise and its own funding.

The research and development place Malta at the centre of an international collaboration, with a Malta-based team of experts in AI and computational biology teaming up with OmniScope’s Spanish expert collaborator in genomics, and OmniScope’s state of the art manufacturing partner in Singapore.

Scientific Co-founder and renowned scientist, Holger Heyn, who is also Team Leader at the National Centre for Genomic Analysis (CNAG-CRG) said that: “Our desire is for our cutting-edge technology to be of service to the global community in these challenging times of heightened emerging pandemic risks. This financial support represents a true collaboration between nations to invest in much-needed innovation. We aim to apply science to rapidly bring solutions we so urgently need right now.”

Dr Heyn highlighted that OmniScope’s first product, OmniScan, seeks to become a universal diagnostic tool that listens to the immune system to broadly detect disease at the earliest stages through simple, minimally invasive clinical tests.

Commercial Co-founder, Vijay Vaswani, on the Malta Enterprise financial support, spoke of the opportunities provided through both a personal and professional lens:

“The Malta Enterprise financial support represents a major growth opportunity for both OmniScope and my home country of Malta. Malta will be playing a central role in our international expansion. My great-grandfather came to Malta as a refugee in the early 1900s. OmniScope’s Malta operations are my way of giving back to Malta and expressing my gratitude, as his great-grandson. I’m proud to support the growth of talent, investment, and entrepreneurial opportunities in the country that has had such a profound impact on my life.”

Kurt Farrugia, Malta Enterprise CEO commented that: “We are thrilled that Malta will be part of this ambitious project that will be involving high caliber researchers and business experts from Europe, Asia, the Americas and beyond.

“As Malta Enterprise, we remain at the forefront to assist start-ups who want to carry out R&D with the aim of commercializing their final product and service. OmniScope’s decision to invest in Malta confirms that we have a strong and very competitive proposition for all those who want to engage in highly innovative projects. We look forward to seeing this highly disruptive startup expand its operations in Malta. Malta Enterprise remains committed to attracting more highly innovative startups.”

OmniScope is building an AI innovation team in Malta, enhancing and expanding the country’s technology-friendly reputation to include both health and medical technology, making it an emerging international centre of excellence and innovation for bioinformatics and AI-enabled biotechnology. As part of its ecosystemic approach, OmniScope is partnered with specialist hospitals. OmniScope’s aim is to provide the Maltese people access to cutting-edge diagnostics and healthcare developed in Malta and Spain and deployed internationally.