Nov 22, 2010 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Clinical laboratory-on-a-chip would cost under £1 and allow young people to test themselves for sexually-transmitted diseases
Some wags call a new diagnostic testing concept the “pee in the cell phone” pathology lab test. The humor is directed at cell phone-based medical laboratory tests under development in the hopes that this confidential and private diagnostic test method will encourage more young people to undergo testing for sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs).
Newspapers in the United Kingdom are reporting on a research project—funded in part by the government—to develop STD tests that can be run on a USB-size chip that is inserted into a smart phone or a personal computer.
This project is a response to the significant rise in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among young people. In the United Kingdom, the rate of new infections for herpes, chlamydia and gonorrhea are rising to record levels.
Clinical Laboratory Test on a Cell Phone or Personal Computer
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Oct 19, 2009 | Digital Pathology, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
In conjunction with Phillips Research, a team from the University of Southampton is looking to revolutionize blood analysis
Point-of-care blood cell analysis in doctor’s offices could soon be much faster and more convenient. In conjunction with Philips Research, a team of researchers at England’s University of Southampton is developing a miniaturized cell analysis device with the goal of eventually delivering a low cost, high speed, and inexpensive system to perform CBCs (complete blood counts) in point-of-care settings.
The team recently developed a microfluidic single-cell impedance cytometer with the ability to execute a white cell differential count. A microchip within the cytometer uses microfluidics to assess various cells in the blood. The electrical properties of the blood cells are assessed while the blood actually flows through the chip. The measurements are used to determine and count the different types of cells and would allow physicians to diagnose several different types of diseases. The device can identify three types of white blood cells (T-lymphocytes, monocytes and neutrophils) quicker and more inexpensively than current systems.
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Aug 5, 2009 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory Pathology
MIT researchers expand genetic screening with new diagnostic technologies
Make way for what is being called “whole animal assays.” This new approach utilizes a lab on a chip to allow researchers to perform whole animal screening at sub-cellular resolutions in what is described as a “high throughput” manner. The new diagnostic technology was developed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
MIT researchers developed this unique whole animal assay testing chip using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. The resulting lab-on-a-chip makes it easier to conduct genetic research into neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. The traditional method of manipulating C. elegans involves using small glass and metal picks and anesthetizing the animals before submitting them for high-resolution imaging, according to Mehmet Fatih Yanik, an Assistant Professor at MIT, and Christopher Rohde, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. Yanik and Rohde wrote about their research in a report published in Biomedical Optics & Medical Imaging earlier this year. Yanik runs the BioPhotonics, BioScreening and NanoManipulation Group lab at MIT. (more…)
Apr 10, 2009 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
New diagnostic and treatment approach will require close interaction with Pathologists
There’s a novel diagnostic device designed to detect sepsis that also has to potential to engage the pathologist as part of the bedside care team. It is also an example of how nanotechnology and magnetism are being combined in ways that may support in vivo diagnosis and treatment.
Created by a research scientist at Children’s Hospital Boston, this new device uses magnetism to quickly pull disease pathogens out of infected blood. Experts predict it could become the first line of defense for sepsis, a disease which kills about 200,000 Americans each year.
The system works by drawing the patient’s blood and adding tiny magnetic beads, pre-coated with antibodies against specific pathogens, such as Candida albicans. The blood is run through a microfluidic system in which two liquid flow streams run side by side without mixing. One channel contains blood and the other contains a saline-based collection fluid. The beads bind to the pathogens. A magnet then pulls them, along with the pathogens, into the collection fluid. The collection fluid is ultimately discarded, and the cleansed blood reintroduced into the patient.
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Aug 29, 2008 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Pathology
Watch out! Coming soon may be tests done on low-cost, paper-based “lab-on-a-chips.” Researchers at Harvard University are working to put assays on paper to improve diagnostics in developing countries. The paper-based test strips are similar to those used in at-home pregnancy tests, but may soon be able to offer inexpensive tests for liver, kidney, and metabolic diseases. The researchers aim to develop tests that are easy-to-use, cheap, portable, and disposable.
Although the goal is to make this testing and mass screening device affordable in developing countries, the technology easily could work its way into developed healthcare systems if it delivers high levels of sensitivity, specificity, and reliability.
The university’s Whitesides Research Group is working with Diagnostics-For-All (DFA), a non-profit venture in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to develop the low-cost, paper-based “lab-on-a-chip,” as DFA calls it. These simple diagnostic tests could be used in resource-poor areas of the globe. The technology was developed in the laboratory of George M. Whitesides, Ph.D., the Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University and a co-founder of DFA.
Here’s how it works. A paper-based microfluidic chip the size of a fingernail is pre-treated with reagents for color-based (or colorimetric) assays to test bodily fluids (such as blood, urine, or sweat) for proteins and other molecules that indicate the presence of disease. The paper is patterned with hydrophobic polymers, forming a series of channels that guide a fluid sample to pre-treated regions of the chip. The resulting color changes can then be read and translated into a diagnosis using a key based on the test being conducted.
The technology offers four distinct advantages over current diagnostic systems. First, the use of paper means the chips could be significantly cheaper-potentially as low as 1 cent per chip-than other microfluidic designs, which use on silicon, plastic, or glass.
Second, the technology is highly portable. No specialized equipment is required to process and read samples, and because it uses the inherent capillary action of paper, the device does not require pumps or power sources.
Third, the device is user-friendly allowing healthcare providers to read the color-based results in minutes with minimal training. DFA could train individual providers to conduct the tests using the chips, and then use cell phones to call doctors who would advise on diagnosis and treatment.
And, fourth, it can be disposed of easily and safety through incineration, which is significant in the developing countries that may lack the resources for biological waste disposal.
“What we have with this technology is the means to help address significant diagnostic disparities between the United States and the developing world,” Whitesides said. “For instance, over time about 5% of patients in the developing world receiving treatment for tuberculosis or AIDS-equivalent to approximately 1 million people-will succumb to drug-related liver complications because of a lack of proper health monitoring. In the United States, tests for these complications are conducted every two weeks, with results returned within hours. In the developing world, when these tests are done, which is rarely, it can take laboratories weeks to send back the findings.
“By developing a low-cost and broadly applicable test system designed to be deployed in regions with no or little access to complex laboratory diagnostic equipment, we hope to make a real impact on public health,” Whitesides added.
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Harvard University and Not-for-Profit, Diagnostics-For-All, Partner to Introduce Innovative, Low-Cost Diagnostic Technology in the Developing World
