TIB Molbiol

TIB Molbiol is a Germany-based, medium-sized biotechnology company that makes reagents for research and medical diagnostics worldwide. It has been in business for over thirty years and was acquired in 2021 by Roche, one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies and global leaders in in-vitro diagnostics.

TIB Molbiol customers are primarily diagnostic and research labs that rely on the company's more than 2,500 diagnostic kits and LightSNiP assays. TIB Molbiol was founded in Germany by Olfert Landt in 1990 and has expanded to the United States, Australia, Colombia, Spain, and Italy.

TIB Molbiol's main products are oligonucleotides, LightMix® testing kits, and LightSNiP assays. Their oligonucleotides are predominantly used for real-time PCR but are also used in other molecular biology fields.

In 2005, the company developed its first LightMix® test kit to detect Influenza A H5N1 (bird flu) and has since developed multiple kits that test for different pathogens, hematology markers, and genetic mutations and polymorphisms.

TIB Molbiol also develops predefined assays for melting-curve analysis of human SNiP (single nucleotide polymorphisms). The company's LightSNiP assays are developed for use with a LightCycler® 480 instrument but can also be run on MyGo, BioRad CFX96, and all Roche LightCycler® systems.

In May 2022, TIB Molbiol announced it has developed three different LightMix® modular virus kits for the detection of the monkeypox virus. The LightMix® modular virus kits are assays that detect orthopoxviruses, including the monkeypox virus, using a technology called quantitative PCR (qPCR).

The first kit detects orthopoxviruses, including all monkeypox viruses from both the West African and Central African forms of the virus (referred to as clades). The second kit is a specific test detecting monkeypox viruses only (West African and Central African clade). For researchers interested in obtaining both of these results, a third kit is available that simultaneously detects orthopoxviruses plus provides information on whether a monkeypox virus is present or not (West African and Central African clade).