Researchers Use Genetic Sequencing and Wastewater Analysis to Detect SARS-CoV-2 Variants and Monkeypox within Communities

Researchers surprised that process designed to detect SARS-CoV-2 also identifies monkeypox in wastewater Early information about an outbreak in a geographical region can inform local clinical laboratories as to which infectious agents and variants they are likely to see when testing patients who have symptoms. To that end, wastewater testing has become a rich source of early clues as to where COVID-19 outbreaks are spreading and how new variants of the coronavirus are emerging. Now, scientists...

FDA Authorizes First At-Home COVID-19 Antigen Tests, but Roadblocks Remain for “Fast-and-Frequent” Antigen Testing

Developers of medical laboratory tests had high hopes that cheap saliva-based tests would compete with at-home OTC tests that use nasal swabs, but skepticism among scientists continues Reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technology has become the standard for clinical laboratory diagnostic testing used to detect the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. However, to enable more widespread testing, some public health experts have called for deployment of cheap, rapid,...

New Discovery by Massachusetts General Hospital May Help Medical Laboratories Preserve Blood for DNA Analysis, Thus Allowing Isolation of CTCs up to 72 Hours after Collection

Using GPIIb/IIIa inhibition, and ion chelation, researchers have developed a “universal” method for preserving blood up to 72 hours while keeping it viable for advanced rare-cell applications Through microfluidics and automation, clinical laboratories and anatomic pathologists have been able to detect ever-smaller quantities of biomarkers and other indicators of chronic disease. However, preserving sample quality is an essential part of analytical accuracy. This is particularly true in...

Clinical Laboratories and Research Organizations Are Racing to Get Low-Cost, Handheld DNA Analyzers to Market

Portable devices have potential to analyze DNA and produce results in the field in minutes to hours, eliminating the need to return to a medical laboratory to analyze samples Pathologists continue to hear about research efforts to create small devices that can perform DNA analysis. In the past year, four research organizations, including one in the United States, one in New Zealand, and two in the U.K., have unveiled several devices that will analyze DNA in the field. This line of research is...

Pathologists Could Have DNA Sequencing Device That Connects to a Smartphone and Can Produce Immediate Results from Several Types of Medical Laboratory Samples

At the proposed $1,000 price tag, Biomeme’ mobile clinical laboratory device has the potential to challenge diagnostic systems used in central laboratories Another smartphone gadget capable of performing diagnostic laboratory tests is headed for the marketplace, and only time will tell if it proves to be a threat to the in vitro diagnostics industry. Developers say that, when paired with a smartphone, this diagnostic device is similar to traditional medical laboratory technology 10 times its...
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