Shukla MR, Deutsch JW, Pereira LE, et al. - In this study, a novel non-treponemal magnetic particle-based agglutination assay (NT-MAA) was developed and was evaluated for its feasibility in syphilis testing. Researchers modified cardiolipin and coupled it to magnetic microbeads. They mixed serum diluted in phosphate-buffered saline with cardiolipin-coupled beads and incubated it in a round bottom microplate for 90–120 min; this was followed by visual inspection. The NT-MAA performance was evaluated in comparison to conventional rapid plasma reagin (RPR) by preparing a panel of reported syphilis (n = 127) and non-reactive (n = 244) specimens. Inclusion of Treponema pallidum particle agglutination (TP-PA) assay and enzyme immunoassay (EIA) was done. The non-treponemal NT-MAA and RPR exhibited sensitivity of 90.6% vs 88.2% and specificity of 96.7% vs 100%, respectively. The treponemal TP-PA and EIA showed sensitivity of 100% and 99.2%, respectively; both assays had specificity of 100%. Preliminary evaluation of the novel NT-MAA confirmed proof of concept using laboratory-characterized syphilis sera and established performance comparable to RPR.