Preeclampsia is one of the most common serious maladies that pregnant women encounter. It is a poorly understood condition with symptoms such as high blood pressure, proteinuria, and headaches, potentially even leading to seizures. The treatment options for preeclampsia are still very limited, mostly confined to hypertension medications, bed rest, (Read more...)
Tag: Pathology
Beckman Coulter Gets FDA Clearance for Early Sepsis Indicator
Sepsis continues to be a deadly malady that clinicians haven’t figured out how to tackle consistently. A major limitation of treatment is how early clinicians can identify that a patient is showing signs of sepsis. Beckman Coulter just received FDA clearance for its Early Sepsis Indicator, a cellular biomarker for the company’s DxH 900 (Read more...)
Microbial Signature for Colorectal Cancer Identified Using Machine Learning
Researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, the University of Trento in Italy, and other international collaborators leveraged a machine learning algorithm to identify a subset of gut bacteria associated with colorectal cancer, the third most common cancer worldwide. They performed a meta-analysis of ei (Read more...)
Deep Lens Raises $14 million to Improve AI-driven Pathology (Interview)
Deep Lens is an AI-driven digital pathology company based in Ohio. They’re currently working with Worldwide Clinical Trials to fast-track patient enrollment into clinical trials. This week, they announced a successful Series A financing round of $14 million. “Since our inception, we’ve benefited from a tremendous group of investor (Read more...)
EnVisio Surgical Navigation System for Breast Lumpectomies Cleared in U.S.
Elucent Medical, a firm based in Eden Prairie, MN, won FDA clearance for its EnVisio Navigation System. The technology involves placing a wireless SmartClip implantable marker within the breast that identifies the location of the tissue to be removed. Normally guidewires are used to locate the target tissue, which extend out through the skin. The [ (Read more...)
Miniaturized Optical Chip Can Identify Individual Biomolecules for Personalized Medicine
Researchers at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne have developed an optical chip that can identify individual biomolecules in small sample volumes, using an ordinary camera and metasurfaces, an emerging technology in photonics. The researchers hope that their technology could pave the way for diagnostic chips that can identify t (Read more...)
UPS and Matternet Launch America’s First Medical Delivery Service Using Drones
The FDA recently allowed UPS and Matternet, a drone firm, to make regular deliveries between two buildings of the WakeMed hospital system in Raleigh, North Carolina. These are regular commercial flights that are helping WakeMed get more efficiency out of their centralized laboratory, allowing clinicians to send patient samples for analysis faster t (Read more...)
Wearable Device Samples User’s Blood to Spot Cancer Cells
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) cause metastases of cancer, but they might have a redeeming quality if we could use them as biomarkers for those very cancers. For most neoplasms, biopsies are performed to definitively diagnose the disease, but circulating tumor cells offer the possibility of “liquid biopsies” that only require the sampli (Read more...)
Wearable Device Samples User’s Blood to Spot Cancer Cells
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) cause metastases of cancer, but they might have a redeeming quality if we could use them as biomarkers for those very cancers. For most neoplasms, biopsies are performed to definitively diagnose the disease, but circulating tumor cells offer the possibility of “liquid biopsies” that only require the sampli (Read more...)
Wearable Device Samples User’s Blood to Spot Cancer Cells
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) cause metastases of cancer, but they might have a redeeming quality if we could use them as biomarkers for those very cancers. For most neoplasms, biopsies are performed to definitively diagnose the disease, but circulating tumor cells offer the possibility of “liquid biopsies” that only require the sampli (Read more...)
Quantra QPlus System for Rapid Coagulation Analysis Wins FDA de novo Approval
HemoSonics, based in Charlottesville, Virginia, won FDA de novo approval for its Quantra QPlus System and accompanying QPlus cartridge for point-of-care coagulation analysis. The system provides easy and rapid coagulation status, requiring only about a minute of labor from clinicians for each test. Initial results are available in about five m (Read more...)
CRISPR-Chip Can Detect Genetic Mutations Within Minutes
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and the Keck Graduate Institute of The Claremont Colleges have developed a hand-held device that can detect genetic mutations, such as those causing genetic diseases or affecting how people respond to certain drugs, in just minutes. The device employs a combination of CRISPR and graphene transis (Read more...)
New Microscope Sees Large Groups of Neurons in Living Brains
Most current methods of looking at the activity of the brains of living animals are very limited in their field of view and/or frame rate. This makes it difficult to understand the complex activity taking place inside the brain that involves more than one small region of the organ. This is all rapidly changing as […]
Highly Sensitive Point-of-Care Sensor Measures Dopamine in Whole Blood
The concentration of dopamine in a patient’s blood can be an important biomarker for a variety of diseases, including certain cancers, depression, and Parkinson’s. Measuring dopamine in whole blood still requires a laboratory, making it slow and expensive and not always suited for things like screenings. Scientists at the University of (Read more...)
Microfluidic Device Measures Platelet Health in Minutes
Platelets are an important component of blood’s clotting mechanism. When platelets are not aggregating as well as they should, there might be a need for a platelet transfusion during clinical care. Platelet functionality is hard to determine quickly with current methods, but researchers at the University of Washington have developed a microfl (Read more...)
Diagnosing Esophageal Cancer More Accurately: Interview with Mark Rutenberg, CEO of CDx Diagnostics
Cancer of the esophagus is often related to chronic heartburn, something patients too often end up ignoring. The onset of the potentially deadly disease can be detected, though, given good enough imaging and regular screenings. The imaging component, that we’re particularly interested in, relies on physicians to take biopsies of random bits o (Read more...)
Handheld Melanoma Sensor Checks Suspect Lesions for Polarization Properties
Melanoma is usually a readily accessible cancer, being on the skin and in full view, but it can be hard to differentiate from benign moles. Researchers at the University of British Columbia have developed and tested a new device that uses a laser to spot the telltale signs of a melanoma tumor as its light […]
Blood Test for Early Stage Cancer Diagnosis: Interview with Dr. Van Etten, CMO of Laboratory for Advanced Medicine
The Laboratory for Advanced Medicine (LAM), a biotechnology company headquartered in the US, offers non-invasive, early stage cancer detection tests that will use the IvyGene Platform. These IvyGene tests are based on detecting genomic DNA shed by cancer cells into the blood stream. By assessing cell-free DNA found in blood samples, the company can (Read more...)
Mauna Kea’s Cellvizio AQ-Flex 19 Miniprobe FDA Cleared for Analyzing Lung Nodules
Mauna Kea Technologies, based in Paris, France, won clearance from the FDA for its Cellvizio needle-based AQ-Flex 19 confocal miniprobe for use in sampling and imaging of peripheral lung nodules. The product allows physicians to image lung nodules directly through existing bronchoscopes and accompanying accessories. Additionally, in some marke (Read more...)
Microfluidic Device Separates Circulating Tumor Cells by Size to Help Spot Cancer
Tumors tend to shed cells that travel down the bloodstream, spreading the disease wherever they end up landing. Though these circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are the reason that cancers metastasize to distant places in the body, they’re also a great biomarker for spotting the existence of tumors. The extreme rarity of CTCs, though, makes d (Read more...)