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pcr

Microfluidic chip to quickly diagnose the flu

During the H1N1 flu pandemic of 2009, which spread across more than 200 countries and killed more than 18,000 people, it became clear that flu diagnosis was often taking too long and resulting in frequent false negatives.

Today, researchers from Boston University, Harvard, and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center are reporting in the journal PLoS ONE that they have built a microfluidic chip that rivals in accuracy the gold-standard diagnostic test known as RT-PCR but is faster, cheaper, and disposable.

For their four-year study, which involved 146 patients with flu-like symptoms and was funded by the National Institutes … Read more

Razor cuts biothreat testing time

The question of why you opened the hand-addressed, over-stamped envelope in the first place can wait; let's deal with the white powder that spilled out on your desk.

And for that we turn to an 8-pound, battery powered polymerase chain reaction (PCR) device called the Razor. New from Idaho Technology, the Razor can analyze up to 12 samples of suspected biohazard material, including anthrax, in less than half an hour.

Described as the "gold standard" of infectious disease diagnoses, the PCR process works by exponentially amplifying DNA via enzymatic replication. The Razor streamlines that process by eliminating … Read more