Charm/Zymo DNA/RNA Swab Tube Continues to Soar!

Charm Sciences partnered with Zymo Research to create a sampling swab specifically designed for work in space. The Charm/Zymo DNA/RNA Swab Tubes were developed to withstand g-forces of liftoff and reentry and provide ambient shelf stability. They continue to remain in service. To date, the swab has launched on three Russian Soyuz vehicles (61S, 62S, and 64S) and three SpaceX vehicles (SpaceX Crew-1, SpaceX-22 Cargo, SpaceX-23 Cargo).

The DNA/RNA swab is currently positioned to launch on SpaceX Crew-3 (10/30/2021) then again on SpaceX-24 Cargo (12/21/2021).

The space center uses the swabs to understand how the astronaut’s diet and space environment affects intestinal health, immune functions, and the intestinal microbiome. The research center asked Charm Sciences and Zymo Research to create the swab to meet the rigorous usage conditions of space and maximize sample integrity to facilitate health knowledge for astronauts and humankind.

“For over 40 years, Charm Sciences has worked with our partners to create innovative solutions to their most complex problems,” said Robert J. Markovsky, President. “Our commitment to our customer’s complete satisfaction has given rise to products that surpass expectations and reset the bar for the industries we serve. Not only are our products on every continent and over ninety countries, but now we are moving into the next horizon, space.”

About Charm Sciences

Established in 1978 in Greater Boston, Charm Sciences helps protect consumers, manufacturers, and global brands from a variety of issues through the development of food safety, water quality, and environmental diagnostics tests and equipment. Selling directly and through its network of distributors, Charm’s products serve the dairy, feed and grain, food and beverage, water, healthcare, environmental, and industrial markets in more than 100 countries around the globe.

Introducing the Charm Myco Case for Portable Mycotoxin Testing

Charm Sciences, Inc., is pleased to introduce the Charm Myco Case, which makes it easy to run any of Charm’s mycotoxin tests from any location, with little setup. The customizable Myco Case neatly holds everything needed to run Charm’s trusted Rapid One Step Assay (ROSA) mycotoxin tests: a Charm EZ-M system, ROSA Quad Incubator, printer, Bluetooth Adapter, centrifuge, pipettes, graduated cylinder, and all disposable supplies needed to run the test. 

“The Charm Myco Case allows for on-the-go testing at a satellite facility, rail yard, or on a harvester in the field,” said Karen Carmichael, Territory Account Manager at Charm Sciences. “The data, including the results and GPS coordinates, can be sent using the Bluetooth adapter to a centralized office via a smartphone. Combining this versatile testing system with Charm Science’s water-based extraction technology makes mycotoxin testing even simpler and more user-friendly by providing actual values for real-time decision making.”

Charm’s ROSA tests are available to detect aflatoxin, DON (vomitoxin), fumonisin, ochratoxin, T-2/HT-2 toxins, and zearalenone. The tests utilize Charm’s patented lateral flow technology to rapidly provide quantitative results, and they can all be read and recorded using the all-in-one Charm EZ-M system.

About Charm Sciences

Established in 1978 in Greater Boston, Charm Sciences helps protect consumers, manufacturers, and global brands from a variety of issues through the development of food safety, water quality, and environmental diagnostics tests and equipment. Selling directly and through its network of distributors, Charm’s products serve the dairy, feed and grain, food and beverage, water, healthcare, environmental, and industrial markets in more than 100 countries around the globe.

USDA-FGIS Approves Charm Sciences’ Renewal of Zearalenone Mycotoxin Test

Charm Sciences, Inc. announces that the United States Department of Agriculture’s Federal Grain Inspection Service (USDA-FGIS) has renewed the usage of the ROSA WET-S5 Zearalenone Quantitative Test. USDA-FGIS operates and oversees official grain inspection services throughout the United States and will use the ZEARQ-WETS5 test for official zearalenone testing. This 5-minute lateral flow test was first approved in 2017 and is reapproved for the detection of zearalenone in 5 commodities, including barley, corn, DDGS, sorghum, and wheat.

“Charm Sciences’ reapproval of the ROSA WET-S5 Zearalenone Quantitative Test is a benefit to the grain industry. It detects zearalenone in grains using Water Extraction Technology (WET) with the same extract as other Charm WET tests,” stated Mark Tess, Ph.D., Mycotoxin Product Manager at Charm. “As zearalenone was a concern in corn last year, more locations are able to screen for this toxin using our 5-minute water-based extraction to prevent zearalenone from entering by-products like corn gluten meal.”

The ZEARQ-WETS5 test utilizes Charm’s patented Rapid One Step Assay (ROSA) technology to extract zearalenone from the sample without organic solvents. Like all of Charm’s ROSA mycotoxin tests, the ZEARQ-WETS5 test can be read and recorded using the all-in-one Charm EZ-M System. The Charm EZ-M System allows incubation and analysis with the same equipment and is robust enough that tests can be run at the point of receiving.

About Charm Sciences

Established in 1978 in Greater Boston, Charm Sciences helps protect consumers, manufacturers, and global brands from a variety of issues through the development of food safety, water quality, and environmental diagnostics tests and equipment. Selling directly and through its network of distributors, Charm’s products serve the dairy, feed and grain, food and beverage, water, healthcare, environmental, and industrial markets in more than 100 countries around the globe.

USDA-FGIS Approves Renewal and Awards 5-Year Contract for Aflatoxin Test

Charm Sciences, Inc. announces that the United States Department of Agriculture’s Federal Grain Inspection Service (USDA-FGIS) has renewed the usage of the ROSA WET-S5 Aflatoxin Quantitative Test. This lateral flow test was first approved in 2014, again in 2017, and is reapproved for the detection of aflatoxin in barley, brown rice, corn, DDG, DDGS, hominy, sorghum, soybeans, and wheat.

“Charm Sciences is pleased to announce the reapproval of the ROSA WET-S5 Aflatoxin Quantitative Test,” stated Mark Tess, Ph.D., Mycotoxin Product Manager at Charm. “The certification marks the third approval of this test kit, which shows that the market favors water-based testing and continued success of lateral flow technology to test for aflatoxin.”

USDA-FGIS also awarded Charm a five-year contract to use the AFQ-WETS5 test to monitor aflatoxin in grains. USDA-FGIS operates and oversees official grain inspection services throughout the United States and will use the AFQ-WETS5 test for official aflatoxin testing. USDA-FGIS used the AFQ-WETS5 test for aflatoxin over the last five years as well.

“Charm Sciences is excited to be awarded the aflatoxin contract for another five years to test grains in the FGIS’s testing program,” said Dr. Tess. “The AFQ-WETS5 test is FGIS approved for 9 commodities and the 5-minute incubation time allows for rapid measurement to meet the demands of the program.”

The AFQ-WETS5 test utilizes Charm’s patented Rapid One Step Assay (ROSA) technology to extract aflatoxin from the sample without organic solvents. Like all of Charm’s ROSA mycotoxin tests, the AFQ-WETS5 test can be read and recorded using the all-in-one Charm EZ-M System. The Charm EZ-M System allows incubation and analysis with the same equipment and is robust enough that tests can be run at the point of receiving.

About Charm Sciences

Established in 1978 in Greater Boston, Charm Sciences helps protect consumers, manufacturers, and global brands from a variety of issues through the development of food safety, water quality, and environmental diagnostics tests and equipment. Selling directly and through its network of distributors, Charm’s products serve the dairy, feed and grain, food and beverage, water, healthcare, environmental, and industrial markets in more than 100 countries around the globe.

Charm Sciences to Assist FEMA in the Fight Against COVID-19

Charm Sciences, Inc. is pleased to announce that we have taken on a new role to support the COVID-19 testing needs of the United States of America. Charm has begun manufacturing viral transport media (VTM), an FDA approved collection and transport media used in the collection, transport, and storage of clinical samples containing viruses such as COVID-19.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) selected Charm Sciences to assist in the production of VTM for swab sample shipments for distribution to central testing laboratories, drive through testing locations, and hospitals.

“The Tri-Agency Task Force for Emergency Diagnostics is comprised of the Centers for Disease Control, Human Health and Services, Medicare and Medicaid, and the White House Coronavirus Task Force. They contacted Charm Sciences to ask if we can help with the critical shortage of sterile buffer-filled vials used for sampling and testing people for COVID-19,” said Bob Salter, VP of Regulatory Affairs at Charm Sciences. “Being able to help support the testing needs of the US government during this challenging time and utilize some of the sterile filling capabilities we have here at Charm Sciences is a natural fit.”

We are proud of all our Charm team members’ contributions to make a difference in the fight against COVID-19 by supplying VTM to meet the high-volume testing needs of our country.

About Charm Sciences

Established in 1978 in Greater Boston, Charm Sciences helps protect consumers, manufacturers, and global brands from a variety of issues through the development of food safety, water quality, and environmental diagnostics tests and equipment. Selling directly and through its network of distributors, Charm’s products serve the dairy, feed and grain, food and beverage, water, healthcare, environmental, and industrial markets in more than 100 countries around the globe. https://www.charm.com

Charm Sciences Introduces Test for Ractopamine in Swine

Charm Sciences, Inc. announces the Charm Ractopamine Test for Porcine Oral Fluid (RACTO-POF). It is a lateral flow test that uses Charm’s trusted Rapid One Step Assay (ROSA) technology to detect ractopamine in porcine oral fluid collected from chew ropes in hog rearing pens.

Ractopamine, a beta-agonist drug used as a feed additive to increase the development of lean muscle in swine, is allowed within limits in the United States but is banned in China, Russia, EU nations, and other countries. The RACTO-POF test is a simple and fast way to ensure that swine are ractopamine-free, and therefore permissible for global export prior to processing.

“Oral fluids extracted from chew ropes are a commingled saliva sample representative of the entire pen of animals. The sample can be collected and tested antemortem as a process control verification,” said Bob Salter, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs at Charm Sciences. “In the case of ractopamine testing, a negative result verifies that the animals are unlikely to have ractopamine tissue residues and that controls for a ractopamine-free production environment and transport are effective. If positive, the antemortem result allows for cause determination, corrective action, and remediation before processing.”

As with all Charm ROSA tests, the results of a RACTO-POF test can be read and recorded using the all-in-one Charm EZ system.

About Charm Sciences

Established in 1978 in Greater Boston, Charm Sciences helps protect consumers, manufacturers, and global brands from a variety of issues through the development of food safety, water quality, and environmental diagnostics tests and equipment. Selling directly and through its network of distributors, Charm’s products serve the dairy, feed and grain, food and beverage, water, healthcare, environmental, and industrial markets in more than 100 countries around the globe. https://www.charm.com

USDA-FGIS Awards 5 Year Contract for Vomitoxin Tests to Charm Sciences

The United States Department of Agriculture’s Federal Grain Inspection Service (USDA-FGIS) awarded Charm a five-year contract to use the ROSA DONQ2 Quantitative Test to monitor vomitoxin (DON) in feed and grains. USDA-FGIS operates and oversees official grain inspection services throughout the United States and will use the DONQ2 test for official vomitoxin (DON) testing. USDA-FGIS used Charm to test for vomitoxin over the last five years as well, first with Charm’s ROSA FAST5 DON test, and then with the DONQ2 test.

“Charm is excited to be awarded the DON contract for another five years to test grains in the FGIS’s testing program,” said Mark Tess, Ph.D., Mycotoxin Product Manager at Charm Sciences. “The DONQ2 test is FGIS approved for 21 commodities and the 2-minute incubation time allows for rapid measurement to meet the demands of the program.”

The DONQ2 test utilizes Charm’s patented Rapid One Step Assay (ROSA) technology to quantitate DON in just two minutes. The easy-to-run test uses water as the extraction solvent. Like all of Charm’s ROSA mycotoxin tests, the DONQ2 test can be read and recorded using the all-in-one Charm EZ-M system.

About Charm Sciences

Established in 1978 in Greater Boston, Charm Sciences helps protect consumers, manufacturers, and global brands from a variety of issues through the development of food safety, water quality, and environmental diagnostics tests and equipment. Selling directly and through its network of distributors, Charm’s products serve the dairy, feed and grain, food and beverage, water, healthcare, environmental, and industrial markets in more than 100 countries around the globe. https://www.charm.com