Matrix MicroScience Founder Awarded MBE for Services to Microbiology

Matrix MicroScience Founder Adrian Parton was awarded a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for Services to Microbiology for his development of novel diagnostics in a range of industries including water, food and healthcare over the last 21 years. He founded Genera Technologies Ltd in 1993 which developed novel diagnostic products for the water industry including the Filta-Max technology for detection of Cryptosporidium in water supplies. This became the subject of a United Kingdom (UK) regulation in April 2000, requiring all UK water companies to use his products on a daily basis, and was also EPA Method 1623 approved.

Parton founded Matrix MicroScience Ltd, a diagnostic company specializing in the rapid detection of pathogens in food, in 2000 and KliniSep Ltd in 2007, a company focused in the healthcare sector, which has developed a rapid diagnostic test for MRSA.

Matrix MicroScience developed the Pathatrix system used by the FDA and the Californian Department of Health to isolate the source of the E.coli O157 that swept across 26 US states in 2006, identify spinach as the cause, then trace the supply line back to the field where it was grown.

Matrix is actively developing reagents for the E. coli O104, the cause of the German outbreak, and plans to launch the test imminently, and is also working on a range of reagents for the detection of E.coli (non-O157) STEC organisms targeted by the USDA in the analysis of ground beef.

“It’s a great honor to receive the MBE in the Queen’s Honors List for services to microbiology and a testament to the hard work of all of the people who have worked with me in the various companies over the years, for which I thank them," Parton said. "It means a lot to me personally that technology I have developed is being used to protect public health.” He received the honor at Buckingham Palace.