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From Start-Up to Scale-Up: How ProtonDx Is Accelerating Real-World Diagnostics in Animal Ag
The Animal AgTech Innovation Summit is where breakthrough innovators meet global leaders from across the animal protein supply chain to forge partnerships, close supply gaps, and shape the future of livestock production. 
ProtonDx joined us in Dallas as a Featured Start-Up in 2025. Its core technology delivers PCR-quality molecular diagnostics in a portable, lightweight device that fits in a backpack. It enables rapid, point-of-need detection of viral and bacterial pathogens across species in under 30 minutes, providing the accuracy and speed needed for faster, more informed treatment decisions.
This year, ProtonDx returns not as a start-up, but as a scale-up - a powerful example of how quickly momentum can build when technology meets real industry need.
We caught up with Nate Ehinger, Senior Director for US Sales & Marketing at ProtonDx to see what they have been up to since last years' summit, as well as their key piece of advice to any Start-Up beginning their journey.
Since joining us as a featured start-up in Dallas, what have been your biggest milestones?
"Since Animal AgTech 2025, ProtonDx has progressed from early engagement to real-world validation across multiple animal agriculture settings. One of our most meaningful milestones was being selected as the winner of the Tesco Agri T-Jam, which led to ongoing on-farm trials of our Dragonfly platform with Tesco-supplying producers, focused on PRRSV and swine influenza. In parallel, we completed field and optimization trials with two prominent vertically integrated North American swine groups, while also seeing strong growth in biosecurity, food safety, and cleaning and disinfecting verification use cases."
What has been the most pivotal moment in your journey so far?
"A pivotal moment for us was seeing our platform consistently perform in demanding, real-world environments across both human and animal health, reinforcing confidence in the underlying science. Prior validation in human health, including peer-reviewed publications, gave us conviction that the technology could translate effectively into animal agriculture. That confidence has been reinforced through field deployments and trials with large integrators and retailer-aligned supply chains, where the platform is evaluated under real production conditions."
What’s the biggest lesson you learned while scaling up?
"One of the biggest lessons has been that adoption is driven by workflow fit as much as analytical performance. Field deployments, including trials with large integrators and vertically integrated production systems, reinforced how important ease of use, speed, and clarity are for on-farm decision-making. Scaling requires as much attention to usability and trust as it does to sensitivity and specificity."
What trends or challenges do you see shaping the future of animal health and nutrition?
"We see a clear shift from reactive testing toward proactive surveillance, driven by the need for earlier disease visibility across production systems. There is increasing pressure to reduce blanket antibiotic use, alongside growing demands from integrators and retailers for faster, upstream insight into herd health. Across all of this, data latency itself is becoming a meaningful operational risk."
What excites you most about connecting with industry leaders at the summit?
"Animal AgTech creates a valuable environment to compare how producers, integrators, retailers, and technology providers are approaching surveillance, biosecurity, and decision-making today. Conversations with stakeholders across the supply chain, including those involved in retailer-led trial programs like Tesco’s, help clarify where rapid diagnostics can most effectively complement existing lab-based workflows. These discussions are critical to keeping technology development grounded in real operational needs."
Finally, what advice would you give to start-ups beginning their journey?
"Spend time in the field early and design with end users in mind from the outset. Performance alone is not enough if a solution disrupts workflows or creates friction. In animal agriculture, long-term impact comes from building trust, reliability, and practical value over time."
Join us April 8-9, 2026 at the Hilton Fort Worth - and come meet the ProtonDx team in person
Are you a Start-Up looking to Exhibit at this year's summit? – Click here to register your interest
Do you want to attend the summit in Fort Worth as a delegate? – Click here to secure your ticket
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