Life science research and clinical diagnostics company Bio-Rad Laboratories announced the launch of its PREvalence ddPCR SARS-CoV-2 Wastewater Quantification Kit, a tool to detect the virus that causes Covid-19 in a community’s wastewater. "With wastewater testing becoming more widely adopted, this assay provides the ability for a community to determine if the virus is present days to…
In a collaboration with the Faculty of Statistics at TU Dortmund and the University Medical Center in Mainz, a research team at the Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors in Dortmund (IfADo) has developed a test that can be used to predict the success of therapy for breast cancer. Breast cancer is one of the most common tumour diseases worldwide. One in eight women will…
SpeeDx Pty, Ltd. and MolGen announced the signing of an agreement to collaborate on supply and distribution of clinical diagnostics products and instrumentation across Europe and Asia Pacific. The partnership links specimen handling, nucleic acid extraction, assay set-up, amplification, and results reporting in a seamless integration of the companies technologies. “This partnership capitalises…
Rapid tests effectively broke Covid-19 infection chains in spring 2021. This is shown by a model developed by researchers of the ECONtribute: Markets & Public Policy Cluster of Excellence of the Universities of Bonn and Cologne, the Collaborative Research Center Transregio 224 EPoS of the Universities of Bonn and Mannheim, and the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). According to the…
Integrating laboratory functions on a microchip circuit is helping improve the cost-effectiveness of drug development. So-called ‘lab-on-a-chip’ or ‘human-on-a-chip’ technology can highlight which treatments may, or may not, work before advancing along the clinical trial process. It can also have benefits for chronic and rare diseases, as well as helping shape personalised medicine.…
An international research team from Saudi Arabia, Germany, and Jordan has developed a novel pathogen aptasensor swab designed to qualitatively detect, within five minutes, any methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) contamination that remains in a hospital isolation room or other surface following standard decontamination and cleaning.
When patients are admitted to a hospital emergency room (ER) it is immediately vital to determine whether s/he has Covid-19. However, with a regular PCR test a result can take up to a few hours. Thus, initially, the patient must be isolated. During the height of the corona pandemic last year, researcher Ruben Deneer from Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) and clinical chemist Arjen-Kars…
Blood cultures are important laboratory tests to diagnose serious infections. Contamination is a constant concern – a patient could be misdiagnosed due to a false-positive test. Initial specimen diversion (ISD) could radically change this.
We recently had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Peter Riegman from Erasmus University. Dr. Riegman is a Molecular Biologist and head of the Erasmus MC Tissue Bank. As an early adopter of digital pathology, Dr. Riegman purchased his first Hamamatsu Photonics whole slide scanner in 2005. It was a NanoZoomer HT, one of Hamamatsu’s very first production units, and it is still in daily use at…
When viruses infect cells, changes in the cell nucleus occur, and these can be observed through fluorescence microscopy. Using fluoresence images from live cells, researchers at the University of Zurich have trained an artificial neural network to reliably recognize cells that are infected by adenoviruses or herpes viruses. The procedure also identifies severe acute infections at an early stage.
The idea of visiting the doctor’s office with symptoms of an illness and leaving with a scientifically confirmed diagnosis is much closer to reality because of new technology developed by researchers at McMaster University. Engineering, biochemistry and medical researchers from across campus have combined their skills to create a hand-held rapid test for bacterial infections that can produce…
Final results from a study of a blood test that can detect more than 50 types of cancer have shown that it is accurate enough to be rolled out as a multi-cancer screening test among people at higher risk of the disease, including patients aged 50 years or older, without symptoms. In a paper published in the cancer journal Annals of Oncology, researchers report that the test accurately detected…
In-vitro-diagnostics company bioMérieux has launched Episeq SARS-CoV-2, a genomic software solution to support microbiology labs in identification and reporting from raw sequencing data related to SARS-CoV-2 variants. Viral mutation is a naturally occurring phenomenon leading to the emergence of variants that can have different characteristics. Today, a number of SARS-CoV-2 variants are…
T2 Biosystems, Inc. announced the its participation in three virtual conferences this summer. The company, which specialises in the rapid detection of sepsis-causing pathogens, will take part in the American Society for Microbiology’s (ASM) and Federation of European Microbiological Societies’ (FEMS) World Microbe Forum; Sepsis Alliance’s inaugural Sepsis Tech and Innovation 2021…
A simple blood test could help doctors spot deadly damage to the aorta, the body’s largest blood vessel, according to research funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) presented at the British Cardiovascular Society conference.
Beckman Coulter announced the launch of an AMH test that uses a validated cut-off to aid in the assessment of poor ovarian response. This new assay helps clinicians predict poor ovarian response in those who plan to undergo controlled ovarian stimulation as part of an in vitro fertilisation (IVF) protocol.
MiniCollect® offers a gentle way to collect small blood samples for a wide range of analyses. The capillary blood sample is becoming increasingly popular as specimen material due to its simpler and less invasive sampling procedure. One of the advantages is the low blood volume. Small quantities are sufficient to enable a variety of parameters to be tested.
Greiner Bio-One presents the Vacuette® Evoprotect Safety Blood Collection Set - the ideal choice for venous blood collection and short-term infusion of intervenous fluids.
Specialist biorepositories are helping advance personalised medicine by supporting the availability of human tissue for research using digital pathology techniques. The pivotal role of the Glasgow Tissue Research Facility (GTRF) in making tissue available to shape new therapies and treatments was outlined in a presentation to the online “Transforming Digital Pathology – Integrating AI to Move…
The Covid-19 pandemic made it clear technological innovations were urgently needed to detect, treat, and prevent the SARS-CoV-2 virus. A year and a half into this epidemic, waves of successive outbreaks and the dire need for new medical solutions — especially testing — continue to exist. In the Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B, researchers from the University of Florida and…
A low-cost, rapid diagnostic test for Covid-19 developed by Penn Medicine provides Covid-19 results within four minutes with 90 percent accuracy. A paper published this week in Matter details the fast and inexpensive diagnostic test, called RAPID 1.0 (Real-time Accurate Portable Impedimetric Detection prototype 1.0). Compared to existing methods for Covid-19 detection, RAPID is inexpensive and…
A new low-cost method targeting genetic mutations often missed by existing diagnostic approaches has been developed. Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in the United States noted that most rearrangement mutations implicated in cancer and neurological diseases fall between what can be detected by DNA sequence reads and optical microscopy methods. The new technique combines…
Clinical diagnostics company Beckman Coulter announced the European launch of the DxA 5000 Fit, a workflow-automation solution designed to fit into medium-sized labs that run fewer than 5,000 tests a day. The clinical laboratory has gone through trial by fire in 2020, where total testing was 245% of baseline volumes, with ~55% being SARS-CoV-2 molecular tests. Despite vaccines, many industry…
Did you know that changing microscopy camera can make a real difference to your microscopy workflow? Packed full of smart features to make your imaging faster and easier, Olympus’ new DP23 and DP28 (4K) cameras enable streamlined, comfortable sample analyses at the monitor and easier, smoother conferencing. Get the most out of the monitor view and discover the many benefits of the DP23 and DP28…
The brand-new Vacuette® Evoprotect Safety Blood Collection Set is the next evolution of safety.
