The fast-tracking of testing on the life-saving University of Otago-developed device, dubbed Freedom4, comes as scientists around the world race to develop treatments and technology to halt the spread of the Ebola outbreak, which has recently killed more than 4900 people.
The brick-sized portable device, which was launched in August following six years of development, allows specialists to test for viruses and bacteria, by identifying target DNA sequences, without the need for samples to be taken back to a lab.
Ubiquitome chief executive Paul Pickering, who has partnered with the university's commercialisation arm, Otago Innovation, to sell the device to the world, said testing in the United States on whether the device could detect Ebola was expected to begin this week.
If testing - which was expected to be completed by the end of this year - confirmed it could detect Ebola with the same level of accuracy as much larger lab-based equipment, it would be put forward for emergency approval by the US Food and Drug Administration, Mr Pickering said.
''I don't want to put a time on their review, other than to say that it is expedited and it is outside the more conventional longer ... processes,'' he said.
If it passed this hurdle, the technology could save lives and help stop the spread of the disease by significantly reducing the amount of time it took to diagnose the deadly virus, by cutting out the time it took to get samples to a lab.
''We want to take a process that may take days, or in some cases maybe as long as a week, and turn that into a process that just takes an hour.''
''It's very well understood that the quicker you can identify patients as being Ebola-positive and get those patients isolated from contact with others, the faster we will get this outbreak under control.
''Anything that you can do to stop that transmission process is going to save lives.''
The fact the battery-powered Freedom4 could save so much time had attracted interest from an organisation involved in the fight against Ebola, but Mr Pickering declined to name it.
''We are a little constrained in what we can say, because it will be subject a regulatory review,'' he said.
Mr Pickering was ''confident'' in the device's ability to detect Ebola, after six years of development and extensive testing, but it was important to balance ''the need for urgency versus the need for thoroughness''.
''Clearly, the consequences of a false-positive call, or worse a false negative call, on an Ebola case are very significant.
''So, the regulators are balancing those risks and we think that's appropriate.''
He was confident in the company's ability to supply thousands of the devices if that was what was needed.
''We have got global manufacturing relationships in play right now to ensure that happens.''
Being able to make a contribution on such a global issue was ''tremendously motivating'' for the team working on the device.
''It could be a real coup for the team at Otago, and for the country as a whole, to make a meaningful contribution here.''
Now, it was all about getting the device to those at the front lines of the fight.
''We view our role as getting a tool into the hands of the people that can make a difference, as quickly as we possibly can.''
Department of anatomy senior research fellow Dr Jo-Ann Stanton, who was project leader on the device, said it could be used to fight Ebola in both West Africa - where resources and access to labs were scarce - and in First World countries.
''It's still a good surveillance tool in any country, because you can take it to the point of infection and you don't have to start ferrying samples that could be highly infectious around the place.''
She hoped the device could be part of a global solution to Ebola.
She was also sure of the device's ability, but getting it out there was not a simple process.
