An Unlikely Pandemic Pairing: Facemasks Embedded with Ostrich Antibodies That Detect COVID-19 under UV Light

Jan 17, 2022 | Digital Pathology, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing, Precision Medicine

Japanese scientists who developed the detection method hope to use it to create ‘easy testing kits that anyone can use’ What do ostriches and humans have in common during the current COVID-19 pandemic? The unexpected answer is that ostrich antibodies can be used to identify humans infected with COVID-19. If proven viable in healthcare settings, the possibility exists that new clinical laboratory tests could be developed based on wearable diagnostics technologies that pathologists would...

International Study into Ancient Poop Yields Insight into the Human Microbiome, May Produce Useful Insights for Microbiologists

Jun 18, 2021 | Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing, Molecular Diagnostics, Genetic Testing, Whole Gene Sequencing, Precision Medicine

By analyzing ancient poop, researchers have discovered how much the human microbiome has changed over the past millennium, what may have brought about the change, and how those changes formed today’s human microbiome Two thousand year-old human poop has yielded new insights into the evolution of the microbial cells (microbiota) inhabiting today’s human gut—collectively known as the human microbiome—that could help pathologists and clinical laboratories better understand diseases that may be...

New Understanding of CRISPR-Cas9-Guided Base Editors Could Trigger Development of Gene-Editing Tools Targeting Diseases and New Types of Clinical Laboratory Tests

Aug 31, 2020 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing

Being able to study the 3D-structure of a CRISPR base editor could help refine the entire CRISPR system, says lead study author Jennifer Doudna, PhD Molecular biology laboratories engaged in CRISPR gene editing will be interested to note that researchers at the University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley) have created for the first time a three-dimensional (3D) view of the molecular structure of a base editor for CRISPR-Cas9. This breakthrough may lead to new, more accurate gene-editing...

Harvard ‘Roadmap’ to Recovery Calls for ‘Massive’ Increase in Clinical Laboratory COVID-19 Testing in Four-Phase Blueprint for Reopening Economy

Jun 1, 2020 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology

Report’s authors claim the US needs to be testing 20-million people per day in order to achieve ‘full pandemic resilience’ by August Medical laboratory scientists and clinical laboratory leaders know that the US’ inability to provide widespread diagnostic testing to detect SARS-CoV-2—the novel coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 illness—in the early stages of the outbreak was a major public health failure. Now a Harvard University report argues the US will need to deliver five million tests...

At MIT, New DNA Microscopy Maps Cells and Their Genetic Sequences Using Chemicals Rather than Light

Sep 6, 2019 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations

Genetic data captured by this new technology could lead to a new understanding of how different types of cells exchange information and would be a boon to anatomic pathology research worldwide What if it were possible to map the interior of cells and view their genetic sequences using chemicals instead of light? Might that spark an entirely new way of studying human physiology? That’s what researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) believe. They have developed a new...