From ANINA to SeekIt: What a chemistry breakthrough becomes when it is built into a platform.

How Seek Labs is turning a new amplification mechanism into a configurable diagnostic platform for respiratory disease and biosecurity

By Jared Bauer, CEO and Co-Founder, Seek Labs | Part 2 of a series on Seek Labs’ ANINA chemistry

SeekIt™ is Seek Labs’ equipment-free molecular diagnostic platform. It integrates ANINA™ amplification chemistry, Velox™ sample-preparation, and BioSeeker™ target design into a single configurable architecture that returns a lateral-flow result at ambient temperature in a 45-minute sample-to-answer workflow, or a quantitative fluorescence result on standard qPCR instruments approximately four-fold faster than a matched rapid qPCR assay.

How fast is qANINA compared with qPCR?

A laboratory result that changes the conversation

One data point in the Nature Communications paper deserves its own discussion, because it adds a second dimension to the story we told in Part 1. ANINA is not only a chemistry for places without laboratories. It is also a chemistry that can accelerate time to result inside them.
In the real-time fluorescence version of the chemistry, called qANINA, we ran a head-to-head against a dye-based rapid qPCR assay on the same instrument using identical Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) gDNA standards.

Metric	qANINA	Matched Rapid qPCR
Single-copy EBV standard	Detected in every replicate at ~9.3 minutes	Not detected
Threshold crossing across six orders of magnitude (10⁰ to 10⁶ copies/rxn)	~3 to 8 minutes	~17 to 34 minutes
Effective doubling time (EBV)	~14.5 seconds	~1 minute
Overall speed at matched input	~4-fold faster than the matched rapid qPCR assay	Reference

Source: Human-McKinnon et al., Nature Communications, July 2026 (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-75361-6), Figure 6.

The implication is not that ANINA replaces qPCR. It is that the same underlying chemistry can improve throughput inside laboratories that already run PCR, while also enabling molecular testing in environments where PCR was never possible. Those are two different value propositions from one chemistry, and both are supported by peer-reviewed data.

What is the SeekIt platform?

Why we built a platform, not a product

ANINA is a chemistry. It is not, by itself, a diagnostic. What turns a chemistry into an answer that can be acted on is the workflow built around it, and the platform that lets the same workflow be reconfigured for different targets and settings. SeekIt™ is that platform.

Every molecular test, regardless of setting, depends on four essential steps: design, capture, amplify, and read. Traditionally, each step requires separate instruments, specialized workflows, and trained operators inside a laboratory. SeekIt integrates all four into a single programmable architecture, delivering lab-quality testing in a user-friendly device or field-ready kit:

• – Design. Engineer the Annexing Probe and primers for each target using our BioSeeker™ AI-driven computational layer, which identifies conserved, discriminating regions across pathogen genomes and generates the sequence set that drives an ANINA reaction.
• – Capture. Extract nucleic acids from crude samples in roughly two minutes, using equipment-free preparation designed to feed directly into an ANINA reaction.
• – Amplify. Run the lyophilized ANINA reaction at ambient temperature (25°C) in approximately 30 minutes, with the Annexing Probe recruiting short primers through spatial annexation to license amplification and detection.
• – Read. Interpret results in 5 to 10 minutes on a lateral-flow (LFA) strip for equipment-free use, or on a standard fluorescence instrument for quantitative laboratory use.

SeekIt is not a single test for a single pathogen. It is a configurable architecture designed to be adapted to different targets as clinical, biosecurity, and public-health needs evolve. The same underlying chemistry, extraction, and readout can be reconfigured by changing the probe and primer set. That is a fundamentally different commercial model from a menu of fixed assays. It is closer to how sequencing instruments enabled genomics: one architecture, many applications, each configured to the target that matters.

What pathogens will the SeekIt respiratory panel detect?

First application: a four-target respiratory panel

Respiratory illness is where the case for point-of-decision molecular testing is easiest to see. COVID, Influenza A, Influenza B, and RSV produce overlapping symptoms. The clinical decision, whether to prescribe antivirals, isolate a patient, admit for observation, or send home, often depends on knowing which of those four pathogens is present. Yet the most accurate testing today still typically means sending a swab to a laboratory and waiting hours or days for a result.

Seek Labs is advancing SeekIt toward a single-reaction respiratory panel that differentiates all four pathogens: SARS-CoV-2, Influenza A, Influenza B, and RSV. The Nature Communications paper demonstrates dual-label endpoint detection in a single ANINA reaction, the architectural building block for multi-pathogen panels. Extending ANINA into a four-target respiratory panel is a natural next step from that foundation, and higher-order multiplexing across pathogens is among the validations Seek Labs is pursuing next.

Rapid antigen tests are faster than laboratory PCR but less sensitive. As Part 1 described, in our shrimp infection model a WOAH-certified commercial rapid antigen test detected only moderate-to-high viral loads and missed every low-level infection (<10⁴ copies/µL). ANINA detected all qPCR-positive samples, including specimens at 20 copies per µL. That sensitivity gap has a direct human analog: early respiratory infection, when treatment matters most, is precisely when antigen tests are least reliable, and precisely when the antiviral and isolation decisions have the highest downstream value.

A molecular panel with PCR-grade sensitivity that differentiates COVID, Flu A, Flu B, and RSV, runs at ambient temperature, and returns a visible result in a 45-minute sample-to-answer workflow could change what “the right answer, in time to act on it” looks like in urgent care, primary care, pediatric clinics, schools, workplaces, and homes.

How does SeekIt apply to biosecurity?

Second application: Biosecurity

Biosecurity is the mirror image of the respiratory case. The pathogens are different, the settings are different, and the operators are different, but the underlying constraint is the same: an accurate answer loses value when it cannot reach the point of decision in time.

Sensitive detection may need to happen at a border crossing, at a livestock or aquaculture facility, during a field operation, or in the earliest hours of an emerging outbreak, not days later after samples have moved to a centralized facility. A configurable molecular platform that operates without laboratory infrastructure and can be adapted to new targets as threats evolve is a different kind of tool than a fixed assay shipped from a central lab. Target customers include aquaculture operators, veterinary networks, and biosurveillance programs.

The White Spot Syndrome Virus work in the Nature Communications paper is the earliest, clearest demonstration of that principle. It was performed on a real natural host, in a real oral-exposure infection model at 24 and 48 hours post-infection, with a WOAH-certified commercial rapid antigen test as the comparator. ANINA detected all qPCR-positive samples, including specimens at 20 copies per µL, while the antigen test failed to identify low-level infections below 10⁴ copies/µL. The pathogen was aquacultural. The lesson is general.

What clinical validation is planned for SeekIt?

What we intend to prove next

Publication in Nature Communications establishes the scientific foundation. It does not establish that every application has been solved, and we do not claim that it does. The human-pathogen data in the paper (EBV, RSV, Neisseria gonorrhoeae) were generated using contrived saliva and simulated urine matrices. ANINA has not yet been evaluated in human clinical studies. The natural-host cohort was small. SeekIt is under development and is not authorized or cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or any comparable regulatory authority for diagnostic use.

The next phase of work involves five categories of validation:

• 1. User validation of the SeekIt device to confirm ease of use and accurate performance across intended users.
• 2. Clinical validation of SeekIt in respiratory sample types with real patient specimens across multiple sites.
• 3. Reproducibility and strain-coverage studies across the pathogen diversity that clinical and biosecurity applications require.
• 4. Higher-order multiplexing, extending the paper’s dual-label endpoint detection to reactions that detect and differentiate multiple pathogens on a single strip.
• 5. Regulatory review through the appropriate FDA and international pathways for the specific SeekIt configurations we advance.

We will be disciplined about that work. We will also be direct about what has already been demonstrated: sensitive and specific amplification across two DNA viruses, an RNA virus, and a bacterium; direct lateral-flow results at ambient temperature; qPCR-level detection of natural viral infection without powered equipment; and quantitative laboratory performance faster than the matched rapid qPCR assay it was tested against.

What can ANINA and SeekIt do together?

What ANINA and SeekIt together make possible

The larger opportunity is not to create one better diagnostic test. It is to help transform what molecular testing can be, where it can operate, and how quickly it can inform a decision. A chemistry that removed the thermocycler and the cold chain from PCR-grade molecular testing, and a platform architecture built to reconfigure that chemistry for the target that matters, together create the possibility of a different distribution model for accurate diagnostics.

I am proud of Dr. Anindita (“Annie”) Roy, corresponding author on the paper and VP of Diagnostic Research at Seek Labs, and of Ariana Human-McKinnon, co-first author, whose equal scientific contribution turned an uncompromising design standard into a new amplification mechanism. I am also proud of every member of the Seek Labs team, scientists, engineers, and operators, who made this work possible.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is SeekIt?

SeekIt™ is Seek Labs’ equipment-free molecular diagnostic platform. It integrates ANINA amplification chemistry, the Velox sample-preparation cartridge, and BioSeeker target design into a single configurable architecture, returning a lateral-flow result at ambient temperature in a 45-minute sample-to-answer workflow or a quantitative fluorescence result on standard qPCR instruments.

How is SeekIt different from a rapid antigen test?

Rapid antigen tests detect proteins and typically miss early, low-viral-load infections. In the Nature Communications shrimp model, a WOAH-certified rapid antigen test failed to identify infections below 10⁴ copies/µL. ANINA detected all qPCR-positive samples, including specimens at 20 copies per µL. SeekIt is designed to deliver PCR-grade molecular sensitivity in the same equipment-free format that antigen tests occupy today.

What pathogens can SeekIt detect?

ANINA chemistry has been validated against four organisms in the peer-reviewed Nature Communications study: WSSV (a DNA virus), EBV (a DNA virus), RSV (an RNA virus), and Neisseria gonorrhoeae (a bacterium). The first SeekIt clinical target is a single-reaction respiratory panel for SARS-CoV-2, Influenza A, Influenza B, and RSV. Additional biosecurity and veterinary targets are in development.

Is SeekIt FDA cleared?

No. SeekIt, ANINA, BioSeeker, and any Seek Labs product incorporating ANINA chemistry are investigational and have not been approved, cleared, or authorized for commercial use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or any comparable regulatory authority.

When will SeekIt be available?

SeekIt is under active development. Availability depends on the outcome of clinical validation, reproducibility and strain-coverage studies, higher-order multiplexing work, and regulatory review through the appropriate FDA and international pathways for each configuration. Seek Labs will announce specific product timelines as those milestones are reached.

About the Research

ANINA was developed at Seek Labs by Ariana Human-McKinnon, Madisen Pyper, MiKenzee Frazier, Emily Plant, Harrison Piper, Tyler Archibald, and Anindita Roy (corresponding author). Ariana Human-McKinnon and Anindita Roy contributed equally to this work. All authors are affiliated with Seek Labs, Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah. The full methods, data, and scientific analysis are available in Nature Communications (July 14, 2026; DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-75361-6).

Regulatory Status

ANINA, SeekIt, BioSeeker, and any Seek Labs product incorporating ANINA chemistry are investigational and have not been approved, cleared, or authorized for commercial use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or any comparable regulatory authority. Human-pathogen data referenced in this post (EBV, RSV, Neisseria gonorrhoeae) were generated using contrived saliva and simulated urine matrices in a peer-reviewed research publication and are not a substitute for regulatory validation or clinical evaluation. ANINA chemistry is covered by issued and pending intellectual property, including U.S. Patent 12,618,795 and PCT publication WO2025064922. Statements about future capabilities, deployment settings, or product plans are forward-looking and are subject to the risks and uncertainties described in Seek Labs’ investor communications.

Related Resources

• – Part 1 of this series: ANINA: Molecular Accuracy Without the Laboratory. Introduces the Annexing Probe, the four-organism validation, and how ANINA compares to PCR, LAMP, and RPA.
• – Peer-reviewed publication: ANINA in Nature Communications (July 14, 2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-75361-6.
• – Company announcement: Seek Labs Announces Publication in Nature Communications (July 21, 2026).