Scientific Innovation
Since its foundation in 1987, Eurofins has contributed significantly to the advancement of science in testing for life. We are proud of the discoveries and advancements our specialists have made in myriad sectors, ranging from food to pharma to forensics testing.
Our laboratories around the world are helping to improve cancer treatments, catch criminals, safeguard the health of bees, ensure our food and water is safe, determine paternity, and beat viruses like COVID-19. Underpinning our work in these areas and more, Eurofins has one of the world’s largest and most varied databases, rich with fingerprints of thousands upon thousands of foodstuffs and drugs.
The complexity of our analyses, often searching for the minutest traces of a substance, mean our activities in these areas necessarily sometimes take years of painstaking research and ongoing improvements of our numerous methods. In other areas, we have responded overnight to global health crises.
Wherever we are and however long it may take, our work helps to make life safer.
With over 900 laboratories in over 1,000 companies across 62 countries, there are countless examples where our activities and our scientists’ great work since 1987 was decisive in pushing the frontiers of Testing for Life. You can find below a short description of some of our innovations. You can also read a small selection of Eurofins’ scientific publications here.
A New Era of Oncological Data
For patients with cancer, regular monitoring of tumour-related genetic mutation is key to effective diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic care. The current medical standard for molecular analysis of these mutations is tissue biopsy, an invasive and costly procedure that carries risk when used repeatedly and does not typically capture all relevant mutations in the tumour source. Eurofins Genomics and Clinical Diagnostics companies have been forerunners in sequencing tumour DNA obtained by non-invasive blood sampling and analysis, called liquid biopsy, providing specific oncological data that can have a significant impact on patient treatment decisions and outcomes. Read more...
Fighting an Animal Health Endemic
African swine fever (ASF) is a highly contagious and usually fatal viral disease affecting domestic pigs and wild boar. Since the first recorded outbreak of ASF in Kenya in 1921, the virus has spread throughout Africa, Europe, the Americas and Asia, with a huge impact on the swine industry. Despite several successful eradication programmes outside of Africa, the virus has continued spreading and remains prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa today. Eurofins Ingenasa has carried out important work to fight this animal health endemic for almost 40 years. Read more...
20 Million Tests a Month to Help Protect the World Against COVID-19
In 2020, the world was rocked by COVID-19, a potentially life-threatening and highly infectious respiratory disease, caused by a novel coronavirus. COVID-19 was labelled a global pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020. In the immediate outbreak, countries across the world grappled with the devastating effects of the virus on their citizens, public health systems and economies. Eurofins acted quickly to develop and ramp up testing capacity to support governments to safeguard public health and innovated to bring urgently required tests to the market to support the fight against COVID-19. Read more...
Protecting Crops and Human Health at the Same Time
Human exposure to herbicides through food consumption can pose potential health risks. According to a 2016 study, glyphosate is the most common agricultural herbicide in the world, used to kill weeds that compete with crops. Eurofins Abraxis developed and brought the first rapid test solutions, from semi-quantitative field screening to quantitative and automated laboratory testing, to detect glyphosate, to market. Read more...
Ensuring Liquid Gold is the Real Deal
Research has shown honey to be the world’s third most adulterated food. In particular, Manuka honey, from New Zealand, has been praised for its health benefits, demanding a premium price tag as a result. But over the past number of years, there has been an increase in adulterated Manuka honey being placed on shop shelves, resulting in New Zealand bringing its first ‘fake Manuka honey’ prosecution to trial in 2019. Around that time, a Eurofins company became the first laboratory in the world to offer a new most sensitive honey authenticity testing method. Read more...
Detecting a Silent Threat – Transplant Rejection
Kidney transplantation is universally recognised as the best treatment option for patients with endstage renal disease. Although clinical outcomes of kidney transplantation have improved steadily for decades, transplant rejection remains one of the key challenges to long-term patient survival. Eurofins’ TruGraf® test is the first test capable of reliably ruling out “silent” subclinical acute rejection in patients with stable renal function, where a patient’s immune system can reject a kidney transplant without the patient showing any other clinical symptoms. Read more...
What Do Pizza Boxes, Raincoats and Frying Pans Have in Common?
PFAS, per and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a class of synthetic chemicals that you may not have heard of, but have certainly been in contact with. These chemicals have unique and useful characteristics and can be used to make products heat and stain resistant, non-stick and water repellent. They are present in a myriad of consumer products, from the pans we use to cook our food, to our raincoats and even some dental floss. Unfortunately, they are very stable compounds that accumulate and persist in our environment and have been linked to a number of health risks. Eurofins companies have been at the forefront of developing methods to test for these compounds. Read more...
Seeking Out a Silent Killer
Exposure to Radon, an odourless, colourless gas, is a health hazard, and is responsible for more deaths in Sweden each year than road traffic accidents and 14% of all lung cancer diagnoses in the country. Eurofins (as MRM Konsult) commercialised the first method to test for Radon in air, which is still used all over the world today, to protect societies from this dangerous gas. Read more...
Fuelling the First Astronauts
Have you ever wondered what astronauts eat when they are in space? With a relationship with NASA spanning over five decades, Eurofins (as WARF Institute, Hazleton Laboratories, and Covance) has played a crucial role in ensuring the food that fuels astronauts as they travel to outer space is nutritious, safe and palatable. Read more...
Protecting Cancer Patients
For many cancer patients, the transplant of stem cells from a donor is potentially a life-saving treatment. However, there is a risk that donor cells can attack the patient receiving them in a disease called acute graft versus host disease (aGVHD), a potentially life-threatening condition following cell transplantation. Innovative tests, offered by Eurofins companies can predict the risk of rejection so that the best patient care can be planned for. Read more...
Safeguarding the Health of the World’s Most Vulnerable Consumers – Infants
In 2008, China was rocked by a national food safety scandal when it emerged that a chemical component called melamine, which is harmful to humans and is used in plastic and fertiliser production, had made its way into infant formula and milk. Of an estimated 300,000 victims affected by the compromised milk and infant formula, six babies died and an estimated 54,000 babies were hospitalised. The tragedy highlighted the importance of using the most stringent methods to test infant formula. Having screened tens of thousands of samples for melamine levels during the Chinese scandal, Eurofins has also played a crucial role in a global initiative to overhaul, redevelop and modernise infant formula testing. Read more...
Tackling the Big Problem of Tiny Particles
If not correctly recycled, plastic poses a major threat to our environment. Degrading into tiny particles, microplastics can remain in the environment for over hundreds, if not thousands, of years, infiltrating aquatic and marine ecosystems and contaminating the water we drink. Recognising the major global environmental problem that microplastics present, Eurofins is at the forefront of providing testing solutions to identify the prevalence of microplastics in our environment. Read more...
Protecting transplant patients and saving lives
Surgeons worldwide perform more than 100,000 solid organ transplants annually, with successful transplantation of hearts, lungs, livers and kidneys, saving and changing thousands of lives. After complex surgery, the risks of infection and organ rejection mean the patient’s fight for recovery starts immediately; even anti-rejection medication can lead to serious adverse effects. Eurofins’ work in immunity is helping to change patient recovery outcomes. Read more...
Busting the Identical Twin Myth
Amid abandoned legal cases, high-profile acquittals of serious crimes and paternity suit dismissals, scientists were increasingly questioning the dogma that identical twins could not be genetically differentiated. Only theoretical approaches existed to solve this conundrum, until a Eurofins breakthrough provided an answer to the puzzle of how to tell identical twins apart. Read more...
New Generation of Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing Methods
Prenatal tests are conducted during pregnancy to provide information about the health of the mother and her baby. Eurofins has pioneered work to develop improved prenatal screening tests for conditions that might affect the foetus, and help inform healthcare decisions before and after the birth. Read more...
SNIF-NMR - How It All Began
Food fraud and the adulteration of what we eat and drink is a global problem and one which is only worsening. Fraudsters are substituting genuine, everyday ingredients with cheaper alternatives that mislead buyers and consumers, and risk allergies, side-effects and even severe harm to human health. The desire to help put an end to such dishonest practices led to the birth of the company that became Eurofins. Read more...
The Future of Bees, the Future of Life
Honey bees travelling from flower to flower are more than just a pretty sight; the species is the world’s most important, and most threatened, pollinator. Environmental changes including increased pesticide usage mean high levels of concern globally about pollinator safety in the present agricultural climate. Eurofins companies are leading efforts to support and protect bee health and reverse the trend. Some of their innovative approaches in this area are now becoming part of standard industry protocols. Read more...
Helping to Stop Zika in its Tracks
The summers of 2015 and 2016 could be remembered as the summers of Zika, with thousands of confirmed and suspected cases of the virus, real fear among travellers to affected regions, and withdrawal from the Rio Olympics by dozens of worried athletes. Eurofins companies responded with the fast-track development and emergency launch of a test to help stop the spread of this heart-breaking and virulent virus. Read more...
A Pioneer in Dioxins Detection
To protect human health, understanding the levels of dioxins in the environment and the food chain is imperative. Eurofins is at the forefront of global efforts to limit our exposure to dozens of dangerous chemicals. Read more...
Acrylamide on the Tip of Everyone’s Tongue
Some rather unusual discoveries in Sweden in the 1990s led to the finding that acrylamide is not only toxic, but also present in a high number of foodstuffs. Acrylamide is understood to be probably carcinogenic to humans and both the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations view the levels of acrylamide in foodstuffs as a major concern. Eurofins has played a leading role in detecting and tracing occurrences of the substance and working to increase understanding of its dangers. Read more...
Testing for Traceability of Meat From Farm to Fork Down to Individual Animals
Food safety crises, from bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or “mad cow disease”), to the European horsemeat scandal, have rocked the food industry and driven consumers to demand safer food products and reliable information about sources and production processes. Eurofins companies’ innovative testing approaches have helped provide true “farm-to-fork” traceability and much-needed confidence to the sector Read more...
The Forefathers of Pesticide Testing
Pesticides were launched in the 1930s, and the protection they afforded crops was lauded. However, the hundreds of pesticides sold worldwide, with more developed each year, plus cases of the use of banned pesticides like DDT and other persistent organochlorine compounds, mean ongoing pressure to ensure that foodstuffs are safe for consumption. Read more...
30 Years of Data for Life
For more than three decades, Eurofins has been considered a leading provider of analytical services globally. The Group performs hundreds of millions of tests each year to establish the safety, identity, composition, authenticity, origin, traceability, and purity of biological substances and products. Its extensive databanks offer years’ worth of information about pharmaceuticals and food and their properties. Read more...
Finding Adulteration Even When Not Looking for it
When you search for something specific, that’s probably all you are likely to find. By removing the constraints of targeted analysis and searching without restriction, Eurofins has opened up a whole world of new possibilities. Read more...
Modern Farming is Precision Farming
Dairy farming has been undergoing evolution since the 1960s. Large and highly-specialised farms are now the standard, and dairy farmers are ever-more focused on herd improvements and introducing value-added tests to their farm management. Through its highly- automated milk laboratories, Eurofins is helping farmers produce increased and higher-quality yields from healthier herds. Read more...
Beating Drug-Assisted Rape Forensically
Detecting drugs in hair has been possible since the earlyv1980s using forensic toxicology, a useful diagnostic tool in proving past drug use or exposure. Two Eurofins forensic toxicology laboratories – Toxlab in Paris and ChemTox in Strasbourg – were involved in the ongoing evolution of testing techniques for several years and together achieved an important breakthrough that assists the judicial system and victims of drug-assisted crimes. Read more...
High-Flying Innovation
Ready access at realistic cost to short DNA strands is crucial to many areas of scientific investigation. Turning to aerospace for inspiration, Eurofins made a vital ingredient more affordable and, in doing so, helped enable huge numbers of scientists elsewhere continue with valuable research. Read more...
Testing for Tailored Cancer Treatment
Cancer is a complex and multidimensional disease, driven by genetic instability and influenced by a multitude of factors. Each patient is unique, and each tumour ever-changing, yet treatment historically has taken a generalised approach with limited success. Advances by Eurofins are helping researchers to “personalise” cancer treatment and better target care for better outcomes. Read more...
Nurturing Cells to Grow
Solid understanding of cell growth patterns and behaviours is central to the development of effective vaccines and antibodies. An innovative analysis service from Eurofins has enhanced researchers’ access to the data they need to optimise research and production conditions when using cell cultures. Read more...
Out of the Box Product Testing
The market is brimming with a vast array of consumer hygiene products, from diapers for babies to feminine sanitary items. Eurofins’ sophisticated and realistic testing device revolutionized leak protection testing, providing manufacturers with reliable information about the effectiveness of products. Read more...
Inventing The Most Sensitive Heavy Metals Detection Method
Heavy metals in foodstuffs such as fish and seafood, fruits and vegetables, and nuts and cereals are a serious threat to health. Exposure to even small amounts of cadmium, lead, mercury or arsenic can prove to be extremely toxic as they accumulate in the liver and other organs. Eurofins’ pioneering tests for these substances can detect the minutest traces. Read more...
A Passive Revolution In Water Sampling
Traditional water-sampling techniques are complicated, time-consuming, and often expensive. Worst of all, they provide either only snapshots of pollution events or need expensive sampling stations that require electricity and servicing. Eurofins Sorbisense came up with a unique alternative. Read more...
Algae, Algae Everywhere. Toxic and What a Stink
Warm weather brings people outdoors and often to recreational waters such as beaches, lakes, ponds and rivers to enjoy those beautiful days. It can also bring about potentially toxic algae to these same bodies of water. While a number of people are familiar with “red tides,” blue-green algae, more correctly known as cyanobacteria, can be just as dangerous. Read more...
Solving Old Crimes with New Technologies
DNA profiling sensitivity has significantly increased over recent years, and forensic scientists are now able to detect DNA in situations where it was previously not possible. However, this super-sensitivity can mean the detection of low-level, background DNA, and mixed profiles in results. In response, Eurofins developed its own globally-leading software for determining the contributors to DNA mixtures in serious crime cases. Read more...
Leading the World in GM Fish Detection
Commercial development of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is on the increase, with maize and soy just two examples. The emergence onto the market of the first GM animal for human consumption – a salmon – means increased calls for clarity on the sale of GM produce. Eurofins responded with the introduction of the world’s first commercial test for detection of this genetically modified fish. Read more...
Not Wanted Dead or Alive! Moulds and Bacteria
Mould and bacteria growth indoors can lead to illnesses. Work by Eurofins to improve testing methods to determine the presence of fungal and bacterial spores in indoor environments has resulted in much faster, more specific and detailed analytical tests. These tests increase the ability to detect a wider range of mould and bacteria species including those which are dead or dormant, that can develop inside buildings. Read more...
Salmon under Threat – Detecting a New Contaminant of Concern
Each spring and autumn, millions of salmon migrate along the American West Coast from the Pacific Ocean, returning to their native rivers and streams to spawn. Unfortunately, a significant number of these salmon mysteriously die before they reach their destination, threatening the future of the wild salmon population. Scientists believe that 6PPD-quinone, a toxic compound that is polluting waterways, is to blame. Eurofins Environment North America was the first in the world to develop a commercial testing method for 6PPD-quinone in aqueous and solid matrices. Read more...
