About

Koru Diagnostics is based in New Zealand, where it develops innovative, affordable pathogen identification tests for the global dairy sector.

Mastitis costs the world’s dairy industry $30 billion a year. In 2018, driven by a desire to help embattled farmers fight a problem that they often can’t see, the team at Koru Diagnostics began work on developing a new diagnostic tool that could utilise the milk samples already being handled by herd testing laboratories around the world.

Research and development focused on a more accurate screening test for Staphylococcus aureus, the bacteria most commonly associated with contagious, subclinical mastitis, a major source of financial loss. Working closely with a large herd testing company, and using its unique expertise, Koru developed the StaphGold™ ELISA test over a period of three years. When the company announced a funding round to help commercialise the product, it received overwhelming interest and the investment opportunity was heavily over-subscribed.

Two scientists testing milk samples in a laboratory

It is the most accurate test available for detecting contagious Staphylococcus aureus mastitis, and better still, it uses herd test milk samples already being analysed – no on-farm aseptic sampling is required.

The strength of the Koru StaphGold™ ELISA lies in the way it detects the infection. Other tests rely on identifying the S. aureus pathogens themselves, but because the bacteria can be elusive to detect, these tests sometimes fail to identify a positive result.  Conversely, sample contamination or sample ‘carryover’ can deliver false positive results when using PCR or microbiological culture media, which are better suited to identifying acute, clinical mastitis cases.

The Koru R&D Team developed a test that identifies S. aureus-specific antibodies, biomarkers of the animal’s immune response to an S. aureus infection. In the herd testing context, this novel approach enables the StaphGold™ ELISA test to outperform conventional tests, in terms of sensitivity and accuracy.

For farmers, this allows improved decisions on herd management and animal treatment, which in turn delivers financial and animal health benefits.

The team at Koru Diagnostics is proud to stand by the ground-breaking test it has worked so hard to develop.
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Our Team

Koru Diagnostics is a Research & Development company made up of passionate professionals who are proud and excited to be delivering innovative diagnostic solutions to the global dairy industry. Meet its highly-qualified team of experts.

Rhys McKinlay

CEO
Being CEO at Koru Diagnostics has brought together the knowledge and expertise Rhys gained in New Zealand from his previous involvement in both milk quality management and the global diagnostic...

Being CEO at Koru Diagnostics has brought together the knowledge and expertise Rhys gained in New Zealand from his previous involvement in both milk quality management and the global diagnostic media industry, while also calling on his skills in building personal and B2B relationships with customers internationally.

Armed with a BSc in Microbiology and BCom in Marketing (University of Otago, NZ) and a PG Dip in Dairy Science and Technology (Massey University, NZ), Rhys started his career with the New Zealand Dairy Board, working in their Global Operations division. Other dairy technical management roles followed, before a move to work in international sales and business development for a niche pharmaceutical intermediates manufacturer.  For the next 10 years, he counted many of the world’s largest diagnostics companies as customers. During this time, Rhys was awarded a Prime Minister’s Business Scholarship, and as a result, he attended Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, undertaking an Executive Leadership Development residential program.

Looking for a new challenge in 2017, Rhys helped bring two animal health diagnostics start-ups together to form Koru Diagnostics. He loves working in a small company, where his team can quickly take product concepts from proposal to proof to patent, morphing into significant value propositions within a matter of months. Job satisfaction is paramount, and he achieves that by being able to lead a company seeking to make a real difference to animal health in the dairy sector, while bringing huge savings for farmers. Rhys feels privileged to lead a talented team that is so collaborative, agile and innovative.

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Tony Pernthaner

CSO
Having grown up on a dairy farm, Tony has a special affinity with agriculture. He followed his passion via a Dr Med Vet degree in veterinary medicine, and a post-graduate Venia Docendi veterinary teaching...

Having grown up on a dairy farm, Tony has a special affinity with agriculture. He followed his passion via a Dr Med Vet degree in veterinary medicine, and a post-graduate Venia Docendi veterinary teaching qualification, ultimately leading to the role of Ao. Professor in Internal and Infectious Diseases of Cloven-hooved Animals at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Austria.  In a decade of working closely with farm animals, he gained specialist knowledge of mastitis and other internal, infectious bovine diseases. 

An 18-year period at AgResearch (NZ) then saw him extend into animal health, focusing on host/pathogen and host/parasite interactions. He has more than 50 publications in peer-reviewed journals, has presented at over 40 conferences, and is an inventor on six patents. Tony loves working on novel approaches to problem-solving that benefit the agricultural industry.

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David Flossdorf

R&D Scientist
David was first drawn to the world of microbiology by a fascination for the tiny life forms that can hugely impact life on this planet. He completed a PhD in Food Microbiology (Massey University, NZ), following...

David was first drawn to the world of microbiology by a fascination for the tiny life forms that can hugely impact life on this planet. He completed a PhD in Food Microbiology (Massey University, NZ), following a Masters in Microbiology and Biotechnology from Heinrich Heine University, in Düsseldorf, Germany.

Prior to his role at Koru Diagnostics, he worked for Henkel AG & Co KGaA and spent four years employed by Fonterra Co-operative Group Ltd while completing his PhD. In 2019, he was the awarded the Microbiology Postgraduate Travel Grant for the New Zealand Microbiology Society – Australian Society.

David enjoys the variety that his role at Koru Diagnostics brings and the part he plays in developing products that combat the spread of disease and aid better treatment outcomes.

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Suzanne Hurst

Senior R&D Scientist
The Canadian, United Kingdom and New Zealand governments have all funded science projects that Sue has either led or been part of; but her interest in science was sparked years earlier in the classroom...

The Canadian, United Kingdom and New Zealand governments have all funded science projects that Sue has either led or been part of; but her interest in science was sparked years earlier in the classroom, with an explosive reaction between sodium metal and water! Since then, she has completed a BSc in Applied Biochemistry (UK) and a PhD in Medical Biochemistry (Canada).  Sue has worked for both academia and Crown Institutes in the United Kingdom, and upon immigrating to New Zealand, held key positions with AgResearch and Hort Research (now Plant & Food).  She has also been involved in science projects resulting in over 50 peer-review scientific publications.

Her role at Koru is to discover and develop new scientific knowledge and technology to support the development of novel diagnostic assays for specific biomarker detection in animal and human diseases.

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