What is the connection between a badger, an elite swimmer and a European luxury car manufacturer? The answer is not an esoteric Guinness advertisement but something we all relate to stress.

New Oxford University spin-out, Oxford MediStress, is commercialising a simple finger prick blood test that rapidly determines if a person or animal is under stress. The test looks at how white blood cells respond to a challenge with a chemical. If they do not perform as they should, then the subject is stressed.

Chief executive Dr David Sarphie said: "The test was discovered during a project to measure stress levels in transported badgers.

"Co-founders Professor David Macdonald of the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at the University of Oxford and Dr Rubina Mian of the Department of Physiology, Coventry University, found that the same test could measure stress in a large number of species, including rats, mice and monkeys.

"Commercially, we will be able to extend their findings to monitor the health and wellbeing of pets, as well as animals on farms and in zoos.

"We've also found we can detect acute stress in humans. We showed the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie to a group of students who registered high levels of stress. Interestingly, this returned to normal in under an hour."

Oxford MediStress has a medium-term goal to tackle chronic, work-related stress. An estimated one in ten people suffer from stress in the workplace, estimated to cost the British economy more than £3.7bn annually in lost revenue.

In the short-term, they have found a useful tool for monitoring the training programme of athletes and sportspeople.

"If athletes over-train, we see a direct change in the stress test," said Dr Sarphie. "We have been working with a group of Olympic-level swimmers to assess their stress levels at the start of a daily workout. The coach uses the results to tailor each individual's training session with remarkable results."

The technology can be extended to many industries and is already being used as a design tool by an undisclosed European car manufacturer to develop a stress-free driving environment.

Oxford MediStress is based in the DiagnOx laboratory at the Cherwell Innovation Centre in Upper Heyford. Opened just two years ago, the laboratory now hosts eight start-up companies.

Lisa Mynheer, DiagnOx director, explained the concept behind the laboratory. "The DiagnOx laboratory was established with support from the South East England Development Agency, Oxford Innovation and the North Oxfordshire Consortium to provide laboratory space to progress very early-stage medical diagnostic technologies to proof-of-concept.

"We provide an office workstation with desk, Internet and telephone, and a laboratory workstation giving the occupant full access to laboratory space and equipment."

Dr Sarphie moved Oxford MediStress into the DiagnOx laboratory at the beginning of the year.

He said: "The greatest benefit of being here is the flexibility of sharing excellent laboratory and administrative facilities without expending large amounts of capital. It's hard to say how long we'll stay here, but there are opportunities to expand into our own offices."

PepTcell Limited is another DiagnOx resident. Managing director Gregory Stoloff has been instrumental in developing the concepts behind PepTcell's approach.

He said: "We are applying a computer model to develop vaccines, initially against major targets such as influenza, HIV and mosquito-borne diseases like malaria."

Protective Current vaccine development relies on expensive, labour-intensive methods to identify those parts of a virus or parasite best able to stimulate a protective immune response. Consequently, it can take years to bring new vaccines through clinical studies.

Mr Stoloff added: "PepTcell's models allow us to bypass the need for a vast proportion of the experimental work.

"In the last six months, we have completed all the pre-clinical work for three vaccines that are now ready to start testing with human volunteers. This would have taken 18 months to maybe seven years by conventional means."

Mr Stoloff is full of praise for the DiagnOx facility. In the early stages of our company evolution, it has been important to prioritise spending on the science, not on the millions of pounds needed to set up a laboratory with the levels of containment we need to work with dangerous viruses.

"Similar laboratories exist elsewhere, but none match the high standards at DiagnOx. The place is clean, the equipment is well-maintained and the facilities are well-stocked."

The DiagnOx Laboratory is only part of the DiagnOx organisation, established with Government funding to improve the commercialisation of UK diagnostics research.

Lin Bateson, DiagnOx network manager, said: "The Government has long recognised the UK's strengths in producing world-class medical research and its weakness in subsequent commercial exploitation.

"While the DiagnOx Laboratory is Oxfordshire based, DiagnOx works nationally to network all stakeholders in the diagnostics industry and to facilitate partnerships that speed up time to market.

"Improved healthcare will depend, to a large extent, on the ability to understand and diagnose disease at an early stage, or even before signs and symptoms are evident, as well as monitoring the effects of therapies.

"It's likely that some of the diagnostic tests of the future will come from companies that start life in environments like the DiagnOx Laboratory."

n Contact: www.diagnox.co.uk n Visit the Oxfordshire Bioscience Network's website at www.oxfordshirebioscience.com to read about the county's bioscience companies