Article • Challenges
No shortage of labs in Malta
Nowadays, the variety of clinical laboratories in a hospital setting is endless, especially due to the constant advent of new technology and scientific discovery.
News • POC
The next-generation RAPIDComm System
Siemens Healthineers announced today it released a major software upgrade for the RAPIDComm Data Management System (V6.0), an informatics solution to centrally manage in vitro diagnostics analyzers and operators at the point-of-care (POC). In addition to the system’s enhanced productivity and performance features, RAPIDComm V6.0 now connects with POC cardiac devices.
News • Microscopy
New Patents for Lightsheet Readout Mode in CMOS Cameras
Hamamatsu Photonics has been granted patents for their “Lightsheet Readout Mode” which takes advantage of the rolling shutter readout in scientific CMOS cameras. Lightsheet Readout Mode is currently available in the ORCA-Flash4.0V2 camera. The patents place Hamamatsu’s cameras in an ideal position regarding the lightsheet application and Hamamatsu will move forward on enforcing their rights…
News • Stroke
Biomarkers May Help Better Predict Who Will Have a Stroke
People with high levels of four biomarkers in the blood may be more likely to develop a stroke than people with low levels of the biomarkers, according to a study published in the August 24, 2016, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
News • Oncology
Loophole for cancer cells
Many cancers only become a mortal danger if they form metastases elsewhere in the body. Such secondary tumours are formed when individual cells break away from the main tumour and travel through the bloodstream to distant areas of the body. To do so, they have to pass through the walls of small blood vessels. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research in Bad Nauheim and…
Article • Research
Testosterone clue to male heart deaths
As men appear to have higher risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) than women of a similar age – with vascular calcification a strong predictor of mortality and morbidity from CVD – a team from the University of Edinburgh hopes that exploration of a link between gender and calcification could help unlock the pathway to new therapies. The researchers have been looking at whether sex hormones…
Article • Research
Plumbing the depths of big data
Big Data has the potential to turn the approach to science and research on its head, according to leading expert Professor Viktor Mayer-Schönberger. In the future, he believes, researchers could adopt a position where they ‘start with the data and then come up with the question.’
Article • Computer & computed tomography
The virtual-heart arrhythmia risk predictor
Research by a team at John Hopkins University (JHU) in Baltimore, USA highlights the patients who are most likely to face lethal arrhythmias. They have developed a personalised 3-D virtual heart that can help predict the risk of sudden cardiac death.
News • Infection
Why does MRSA ‘superbug’ kill influenza patients?
Researchers have discovered that secondary infection with the Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacterium (or “superbug”) often kills influenza patients because the flu virus alters the antibacterial response of white blood cells, causing them to damage the patients’ lungs instead of destroying the bacterium. The study suggests that inhibiting this response may help treat…
News • Low Oxygen, High Risk
How tumors adapt to become more aggressive
One of the many reasons tumors are so difficult to treat is that they are able to adapt whenever they are exposed to unfavorable conditions. Hypoxia, or a lack of oxygen, is one example of a phenomenon that should weaken the tumor, but instead, the malignant cells are able to compensate and drive more aggressive disease behavior.
News • Related Fears
The impact of Ebola on facility-based child deliveries
The first known household survey examining the collateral harm to pregnancy services in areas affected by the West African Ebola epidemic suggests a significant slide backwards in child and maternal health. The study, conducted in Liberia, points to the deep disruptions caused by the Ebola epidemic — even in parts of the country with relatively limited transmission.
News • Oncology
3-D Models yield insights into ovarian cancer
With a unique approach that draws on 3-D printing technologies, a team of University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers is developing new tools for understanding how ovarian cancer develops in women.
News • Breakthrough
Early detection of leukemia patients' resistance to therapy
Australian researchers have made a world-first breakthrough in the early detection of patients' resistance to a common treatment for chronic myeloid leukemia. The discovery offers some hope that the patients' treatment could be changed sooner to improve their chances of survival.
News • Clinical Chemistry
Siemens Healthineers Unveils Atellica Solution at AACC 2016
Siemens Healthineers unveiled the Atellica Solution(1), a highly flexible immunoassay and clinical chemistry solution featuring patented bi-directional magnetic sample-transport technology that is 10 times faster than conventional conveyors.(1)The unveiling occurred during the 68th AACC Annual Scientific Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo in Philadelphia.
News • Lab-on-a-Chip
Breakthrough aims to help physicians detect cancer at nanoscale
IBM scientists have developed a new lab-on-a-chip technology that can, for the first time, separate biological particles at the nanoscale and could enable physicians to detect diseases such as cancer before symptoms appear.
News • Infection
Siemens Zika test receives FDA emergency use authorization
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics Inc. (Siemens) an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for its real-time PCR Zika Virus assay, the VERSANT® Zika RNA 1.0 Assay (kPCR) Kit. With respect to Zika in vitro diagnostic tests, FDA has been authorized to issue EUAs to allow for use of unapproved medical products or unapproved uses of approved medical…
Sponsored • MALDI Tissuetyper
The rapifleX is now available as TOF/TOF
The MALDI Tissuetyper is a system that records spatially resolved mass spectra directly from tissue. This allows the direct measurement of proteins, lipids and other molecular classes without the need for antibodies or molecular probes. This results in highly multiplexed datasets in which hundreds or thousands of compounds are measured simultaneously.
Sponsored • Mass spectrometry
Rapid, reliable cancer diagnostics
Cancer patients today can benefit from much better drugs providing treatments tailor-made to specific mutations. However, broad application is still hampered by a considerable bottleneck: fast, reliable, and cost-effective diagnosis. Agena's MassARRAY platform is addressing this bottleneck with an elegant new solution.
Sponsored • Digital pathology
The challenges of digital pathology
In order to be able to properly locate digital pathology in the current discourse on the digitalisation of healthcare, pathology has to be understood as a fundamental diagnostic discipline, above all in oncology. Report: Stefan Kropf
Sponsored • Analyzer
A new generation of hemostasis instrumentation
Authors Guiseppe Lippi, Chiara Bovo and Emmanuel J. Favaloro offer a glimpse into a new generation of hematology analyzers and discuss the concepts of redesigning coagulation analyzers to fit the most important aspects of the preanalytical, analytical and postanalytical phases in hemostasis testing. The aim of this opinion article is to provide some personal ideas, based on experience and…
Sponsored • Hematology
Shaping the advancement of healthcare
Our mission at the Sysmex Corporation is defined very clearly in our corporate policy: in all that we do, our focus must be on Shaping the Advancement of Healthcare. Of course, there are a million mission statements out there, with all underlying companies claiming that they will change the world in which they operate. Words can come cheap. But not at Sysmex. By the simple fact that we are the…
Sponsored • Quality assurance
The Calibration Laboratories of the RIB
The calibration laboratories Bonn and Hannover are scientific institutions of the Reference Institute for Bioanalytics (RfB). Using traceable reference measurement procedures of the highest metrological order the laboratories determine laboratory medical target values, so-called reference method values, in human or human-like materials such as serum, plasma or urine. Report: Christina Ritter-Sket
Sponsored • Automated Sample Preparation
Discover the future of LC-MS/MS
Since several years, LC-MS/MS technology is making an important breakthrough in the field of clinical research. The progress of tandem MS or MS/MS in that field is mainly due to its ability for high sensitivity detection, high selectivity, as well as possibilities of multiplexing compounds in one analysis without the risk of cross reactions inherent to immuno-assay tests.
News • Molecular troublemakers
How proteins prevent communication between bacteria
They may be slimy, but they are a perfect environment for microorganisms: biofilms. Protected against external influences, here bacteria can grow undisturbed, and trigger diseases. Scientists at Kiel University, in cooperation with colleagues at the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) in Hamburg-Harburg, are researching how it can be possible to prevent the formation of biofilms from the…
Sponsored • Screening
What’s new in Cardiac Risk Testing?
It’s well known that cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the UK and worldwide. In the UK it is responsible for more than 73,000 deaths annually, affecting 1 in 6 men and 1 in 10 women. With the emergence of such startling statistics, this begs the question, why do routine cholesterol tests still rely on the basic biomarkers high density lipoprotein (HDL), low density…
