Jul 15 2010
Biomagnetics Diagnostics announced that it has signed an agreement with Los Alamos National Security. Under the deal, the engineering and scientific staffs of LANL (Los Alamos National Laboratory) will identify new biomarkers that can help diagnose human tuberculosis.
The LANL staffs will also develop an assay for human tuberculosis diagnosis using presently known biomarker along with optical biosensor platform, which is based on waveguides. This assay will be used to detect the pathogens that cause the disease. The assay was developed at LANL and was licensed to the company in 2009.
The device has been developed based on the pathogen detection technologies of LANL. This device has the ability to identify pathogens that affect humans throughout the world. The present advanced tuberculosis detection technologies depend on enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent (ELISA) assays, or DNA signatures and polymerase chain reaction. Both these technologies take long hours to deliver results, while ELISA produces the results with less confidence. The collaborative research will result in development of an integrated optical biosensor technology, which may help to significantly decrease the cost and time.
The CEO of Biomagnetics, Clayton Hardman, said that conventional tuberculosis diagnosis is based on Mycrobacterium tuberculosis organisms culturing, which is time-consuming and expensive. Newer tuberculosis diagnosis such as the T-SPOT TB, and QuantiFERON-TB Gold In Tube increased the diagnosis speed, but still expensive and need highly trained personnel. Hardman noted that any untrained personnel could use their device in a cost-effective manner and in a short span of time.
Source: http://www.biomagneticsbmgp.com/