Diagnosising Sepsis In Under An Hour
Because current sepsis tests can take up to two days to provide a diagnosis, many patients fail to receive proper treatment until it is too late.
However, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology hope to improve survival rates with the MinoLab, a new testing platform which they claim will be able to provide results in under an hour. The MinoLab uses magnetic nanoparticles to carry the analyte through multiple reaction chambers before providing a final diagnosis.
More from the announcement:
Dr. Dirk Kuhlmeier, a scientist at the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology, explains how all that works: “After taking a sample of blood, magnetic nanoparticles bind themselves to the target cells in the blood sample through specific catcher molecules. We then use a simple magnet to transfer the particles onto the plastic card along with the pathogens and move them through various miniaturized reaction chambers which is where the polymerase chain reaction takes place. This is a method for copying even the smallest DNA sequences of pathogens millions of times. After it is copied, the nanoparticles transport the pathogen DNA into the detection chamber where a new type of magnetoresistive biochip can identify pathogens and antibiotics resistances.”
Link: Fast sepsis test can save lives…
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
Researchers at Lund University in Sweden successfully used magnets to guide clot-dissolving drugs (fibrinolytics) directly to the site of a thrombus stuck within a coronary stent. They did this by attaching the drugs to magnetic nanoparticles and using external magnets to move them to the right spot.
