Company Introduction

Bay Area Health Trust is a Hamilton, Ontario-based company that operates life science businesses to return value to its beneficiaries, including Hamilton Health Sciences and McMaster University. As a unique organization battling the pandemic first hand, innovating to bring the community solutions, and investing to be the change healthcare needs, we share with pride our successes and lessons learned of not just surviving, but thriving.

Brief description of main products or services 

In anticipation of global shortages of nasal swabs and other virus testing supplies, including transport media that preserve the integrity of collected samples, Dr. David Bulir, a researcher from McMaster University and The Research Institute of St. Joe’s Hamilton recognized the need for a better way.
McMaster Molecular Medium (MMM) is a temperature-stable storage medium that can maintain coronavirus specimens for up to 14 days, significantly longer than standard transport media. MMM inactivates the virus so it cannot replicate and potentially infect a lab technician. The genetic material is kept stabilized and ready for testing.
Unlike universal or viral transport media, McMaster Molecular Medium begins to inactivate pathogens, proteins and enzymes immediately upon insertion, allowing the sample to be tested right away or shipped at ambient temperature to a testing facility anywhere in the world. 

• Test samples within minutes of collection
• Compatible with most automated lab testing devices
• Saves significant cost and infrastructure by eliminating the cold chain
• Temperature stable shipping
• Preserves RNA and DNA for molecular testing
• Patent pending formulation