Jul 29, 2016 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing
Paper-based devices could perform complex, multistep diagnostic tests at a fraction of the cost of traditional medical laboratory analysis
Many research teams are racing to create paper-based devices for medical laboratory tests. Their primary goal is develop a cheap, fast, reliable way to perform diagnostic testing in third world settings, where modern clinical laboratories are few and far between. One development team is working to combine lab-on-a-chip technologies with the low cost of paper-based platforms.
Meanwhile, over the past decade, point-of-care testing (POCT) has revolutionized diagnosis and treatment options for a myriad of conditions. In developing regions or remote areas, low-cost POCT improves accessibility to vital tests for infectious diseases, such as HIV, Malaria, and Ebola, as well as acute medical conditions, such as sepsis.
In the past eight years, Dark Daily has reported many times on the emergence of new POCT devices. From lactic acid screening to the lab-in-a-needle, which is used for detecting liver toxicity, the ability to produce a quick and accurate diagnosis without intensive clinical laboratory testing is growing.
However, one area where many POCT devices face challenges is in surviving extended environmental exposure. This does not pose an issue in major research hospitals or health systems. However, the consequences can be severe when considering the often harsh, resource-limited conditions of developing countries—one area in which POCT stands to offer the greatest value. (more…)
Jun 20, 2016 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing
IBM’s Watson continues to seek a role as a cognitive computing tool of choice for physicians and pathologists in need of evidence-based clinical patient data
Remember IBM’s Watson? It’s been five years since Watson beat human contestants on Jeopardy. Since then, IBM has hoped Watson could be used in healthcare. To that end, some oncologists are exploring the use of Watson in cancer care. This could have implications for anatomic pathologists if oncologists developed a way to use Watson in the diagnosing cancers and identifying appropriate therapies for those cancers.
In 2011, IBM’s Watson supercomputer defeated human contestants for a charity prize during the television show Jeopardy. Just days later, Dark Daily reported on IBM’s goal for Watson to play a major role in helping physicians diagnose and treat disease. Since then, IBM has been exploring ways to commercialize Watson’s cognitive computing platform through partnerships with some of the healthcare industry’s biggest brands. (more…)
Jun 8, 2016 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will hold hearings to determine whether University of California Berkeley, or Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, should receive patents for new genomic engineering technique
In the race to master gene-editing in ways that will advance genetic medicine and patient care, one of the hottest technologies is CRISPR, which stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. But now a patent fight has the potential to complicate how pathologists and other scientists use this exciting technology.
This dispute over the CRISPR patent—a tool that has been hailed as one of the biggest biotech breakthroughs of the decade—will likely be settled in the coming months by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
The USPTO will be reviewing key patents awarded for what is called CRISPR/Cas9. The technology is already generating novel therapies for diseases, which should create new opportunities for pathologists and medical laboratories. (more…)
May 27, 2016 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Understanding the unknown functions of these genes may lead to the creation of new diagnostic tests for clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups
Once again, J. Craig Venter, PhD, is charting new ground in gene sequencing and genomic science. This time his research team has built upon the first synthetic cell they created in 2010 to build a more sophisticated synthetic cell. Their findings from this work may give pathologists and medical laboratory scientists new tools to diagnose disease.
Recently the research team at the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) and Synthetic Genomics, Inc. (SGI) published their latest findings. Among the things they learned is that science still does not understand the functions of about a third of the genes required for their synthetic cells to function. (more…)
May 25, 2016 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing
Blood genotyping is one type of DNA test this miniature lab can perform as entrepreneurs work to take DNA testing out of medical laboratories and into other settings
It had to happen! There’s now a product designed to allow individuals to perform “do-it-yourself” DNA testing. Pathologists and clinical laboratory managers will be interested to learn that—for less than $800—they can acquire their own home set-up, which includes a PCR thermocycler, a centrifuge, a gel electrophoresis box, and a power supply with blue LED transillumination.
This new, compact, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) analysis product was developed to give individuals who want to work with DNA a fun and easy way to explore their genetic make-up.
It was developed by Bento Bioworks, a company based in London, England, and is described as a do-it-yourself DNA analysis kit called Bento Lab. The device is about the size of a laptop computer and may be used anywhere to conduct a variety of DNA experiments.
Bento Lab allows people to conduct simple DNA tests from samples obtained from saliva or hair follicles. Animal tissue, food, and drink samples may also be evaluated with the unit.
To perform an experiment, the user simply places a sample into a centrifuge located in the middle of the device. Bento Lab then extracts the DNA for analysis and a thermocycler targets a specific portion of the DNA and copies it. A gel unit then portrays the DNA to enable the user to interpret the results. (more…)
