Researchers at the National Research Council , led by Joan Grimalt, have found a new procedure to detect up to 200 compounds in a small polluted blood sample. The pollutants detected are the organochlorine type (such as DDT ) or brominated . They are toxic and enter the body through the diet , so their detection is essential , especially in newborns, since it can be a cause of different diseases. In this regard, and due to the sensitivity of the new method can make the analysis even in the cord blood.
This method applies different chemical analysis techniques and their sensitivity is such that it can be used for samples with less than 300 microliters. According to the authors of the work, its importance lies in the possibilities opened up for analysis in children and newborns, and to search for the diseases in which these contaminants may be involved , among other applications.
Chip to detect cancer in a drop of blood:
In the near future that will occur in only twenty minutes you will know if you have cancer placed on a drop of your blood or urine a small device the size of one chip. And in the distant future , the same device , which would be available at any pharmacy, will be able to detect any disease in some fluid.
The development of this new nanobiosensors rapid is framed within the European project Nanoantenna and involves the leading European experts in nanotechnology and biotechnology surface engineering . If you meet the design expectations in three years the average citizen can apply it at home , without having to go to a pharmacy or laboratory, purchased at a price similar to the biosensor that is used to check glucose.
Screening blood spongiform encephalopathy:
For now, the only way diagnose BSE is to extract and analyze the brain samples . And for this you must kill the animal or the patient must be already dead . But it seems that there has been an important step to develop a new method that allows be diagnosed after a blood specimen.
The group led by Christoph Sensen at the University of Calgary ( Canada) , has been able to diagnose in deer blood transmissible spongiform encephalopathy . Everything is due to the use of PCR to amplify DNA sequences related to transmissible spongiform encephalopathies .
Although not currently used for humans, the authors of the work are convinced they have taken an important step for the simple diagnosis of Creutzfeldt- Jakob disease in humans.
