Innovators Develop Multi-Analyte Pulse Oximeters That Accurately Read Oxygen Levels in People with Darker Skin Pigmentation

Multiple studies have shown that people with darker skin pigmentation run a higher risk of being misdiagnosed and undertreated than patients with lighter skin due to inaccurate oxygen level readings Though pulse oximeters are not a standard clinical laboratory device, clinical laboratory scientists (aka, medical technologists) know of them and understand their function, particularly with hospital patients. Now, scientists at multiple institutions are working to improve the basic pulse...

UCSF Researchers Identify Genetic Mutation That Promotes an Asymptomatic Response in Humans to COVID-19 Infection

Understanding why some people display no symptoms during a COVID-19 infection could lead to new precision medicine genetic tests medical labs could use to identify people with the mutated gene New research from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) may explain why some people could get COVID-19 but never test positive on a clinical laboratory test or develop symptoms despite exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. According to the UCSF study, variations in a specific gene in a...

Genomic Scientists Are Working to Make Human Reference Genome More Inclusive by Expanding the Pangenome

Project aims to create a new pangenome for genetic testing that will ensure better clinical laboratory testing and healthcare outcomes Recent advances in genetics are motivating some scientists to proclaim the need to update the existing “master human genome”—currently based on a single individual’s genetic sequence—to make it more inclusive. This international research effort will have implications for personalized clinical laboratory testing and precision medicine. Genetic scientists at the...

Researchers in Boston Find COVID-19 Spike Protein Lingers in Long COVID-19 Patients

Viral reservoir could be behind persistence, says study, which also suggests a blood biomarker could be found for clinical laboratory testing Microbiologists and virologists working closely with physicians treating long COVID-19 patients will gain new insights in a study that found coronavirus spike protein in COVID-19 patients’ blood up to 12 months after diagnosis. The researchers believe their findings could be used to develop a clinical laboratory biomarker for long COVID-19. Researchers...

Proteomics-based Clinical Laboratory Testing May Get a Major Boost as Google’s DeepMind Research Lab Is Making Public Its Entire AI Database of Human Protein Predictions

DeepMind hopes its unrivaled collection of data, enabled by artificial intelligence, may advance development of precision medicines, new medical laboratory tests, and therapeutic treatments ‘Tis the season for giving, and one United Kingdom-based artificial intelligence (AI) research laboratory is making a sizeable gift. After using AI and machine learning to create “the most comprehensive map of human proteins,” in existence, DeepMind, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL), parent...
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