Transforming medical research: Empowering researchers with Absolute Q

Key challenges

Combinati's hardware instruments required a sophisticated software solution to enable efficient data processing and analysis, ensuring researchers could work seamlessly with Digital PCR results — a cutting-edge molecular biology technique used to quantify and amplify nucleic acids such as DNA or RNA in a sample. Building data processing software capable of meeting the precision demands of clinical and research environments was a foundational challenge for the engagement.

The development of the software was aimed at democratizing Digital PCR, empowering researchers worldwide with accessible and impactful disease-driven biomarker tracking and healthcare information — requiring medical research software that was not only technically sophisticated but also intuitive enough for scientists across disciplines to adopt quickly.

Developing a dPCR platform that drastically reduced processing time by approximately 90 minutes compared to existing market leaders, while maintaining high levels of accuracy and precision in analysis, set a demanding performance benchmark that the software architecture needed to be designed around from the outset.

Client in spotlight

Combinati believes simplicity shouldn't require sacrificing robustness, quality, or rigor — in fact, it should enable it. Combinati's easy-to-use Digital PCR platform offers absolute quantification to track disease-relevant biomarkers over time with high accuracy and precision. Comprising a single instrument and a single consumable, the core microfluidic technology enables the partitioning of samples with minimal waste. Combined with the ability to robustly reject false positives and easily adapt traditional qPCR assays, Combinati aimed to democratize Digital PCR for researchers all over the world. Kellton partnered with Combinati to develop the medical research software that brought the Absolute Q platform to life — a collaboration that ultimately contributed to Combinati's acquisition by Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Unlocking Digital Success

Ideation

The engagement was conceptualized around identifying and building the data processing and analysis software layer that would bridge Combinati's hardware instruments and the researchers using them. Kellton recognized the need for a solution that could automate complex data processing workflows post partitioning, thermocycling, and imaging — while remaining intuitive and flexible enough for scientists to choose from diverse analysis methods. The vision was medical industry software that would not only meet the technical requirements of dPCR analysis but help Combinati position its Absolute Q platform as a category-defining product in the life sciences market.

Our approach

Kellton dedicated a team of three to seven experts over 18 months, building the Absolute Q application using React.js, Redux, PixiJS, Chart.js, and Django/Python, integrated with Combinati's hardware. The software automated data processing post partitioning, thermocycling, and imaging, supporting diverse analysis methods across Infectious Disease, Oncology, and genomics. Absolute Q achieved approximately 90 minutes of processing time improvement over market leaders while maintaining clinical-grade accuracy. Released to beta testers in Q1 2020 and publicly in September 2020, its sensitive viral RNA detection also enabled SARS-CoV-2 wastewater screening for COVID-19 community spread tracking.

Outcomes

The engagement delivered the complete software component for Combinati's Absolute Q platform — a medical research software solution built on React.js, Redux, PixiJS, Chart.js, and Django/Python that automated data processing and analysis across partitioning, thermocycling, and imaging workflows. The platform provided researchers with flexible analysis method options, real-time data visualization, and processing performance approximately 90 minutes ahead of market leaders — while its sensitive viral RNA detection capabilities contributed directly to COVID-19 wastewater screening efforts.

Project outcomes

Processing time was reduced by approximately 90 minutes compared to market leaders while maintaining high accuracy and precision in data processing and analysis — leading to improved lab throughput and accelerated research in Infectious Disease and Oncology.

Absolute Q contributed meaningfully to COVID-19 efforts, offering sensitive detection of viral RNA targets and proving to be a more sensitive method of SARS-CoV-2 detection — supporting community spread tracking through wastewater screening capabilities at a critical moment in global public health.

Combinati was established as a trailblazer in democratizing Digital PCR — with the medical industry software Kellton built empowering global researchers with genomic insights previously inaccessible at this level of simplicity and performance.

Combinati's growth and technological credibility led to its acquisition by Thermo Fisher Scientific — validating the Absolute Q platform's market position and the quality of the medical research software built over Kellton's 18-month engagement.

Diverse analysis methods were built into the platform, giving researchers the flexibility to apply Absolute Q across a wide range of applications spanning Infectious Disease, Oncology, and genomics — extending the software's value well beyond a single-purpose research tool.

A phased release strategy — beta testing in Q1 2020 followed by full public launch in September 2020 — ensured the software was rigorously validated with real users before scaling, reducing risk and strengthening confidence in the platform's reliability from launch.

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