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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