Reagent Filming for Universal Point-of-Care Diagnostics
Posted by Adam Awdish on
Pooled Human Urine from Innovative Research was used in the following study:
Reagent Filming for Universal Point-of-Care Diagnostics
Gyeo-Re Han, Hyungjun Jang, Hangil Ki, Hoyeon Lee, and Min-Gon Kim
Small Methods
2021
Global medical centers, especially places like outdoor clinics and community health centers, benefit from simplified and decentralized point-of-care testing (POCT) due to their affordability, accessibility, and ease of operation. These factors allow for disease diagnosis in resource-limited settings or in uncontrolled environments, such as field clinics in catastrophe or poverty-affected regions. Simplifying assays, however, comes with its own set of challenges to overcome. For example, translating more advanced assays into portable versions still often requires high-end equipment and specialized training for effective use.
To address this problem, researchers in this study created a simple solution that films reagents in an assay to preserve the stability of said reagents without the use of cold chains. The film is produced through a scalable cast-drying process that results in a glassy inner matrix with an abundance of hydroxyl groups that are capable of stabilizing various diagnostic reagents. Assays treated with the film resulted in excellent analytical and diagnostic performance at elevated temperatures, proving to be a potential solution for the difficulty of using diagnostic assays in community or field health clinics.
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