Theranos has encountered big trouble, but the new technology of POCT is still infinite.
Release date: 2016-04-28
Everyone knows that Theranos, founded by the big-eyed beauty Holems, is currently in deep technical crisis. The US FDA and CMS issued more than 100 reports, questioning its claimed rapid blood detection technology for fingertips. However, before the Holems beauty completely announced its technical "black box", we were really uncomfortable with the technical core of Theranos products. But looking at the cutting-edge technology in the field of rapid detection, the technology core of Theranos products should be the combination of microfluidic chip technology and sensors, and some technologies can be improved to make it possible to detect with fingertip blood. Let's not say whether Theranos sells dog meat, but the microfluidic chip is really the new favorite of current researchers.
The most closely integrated with microfluidic chip technology is the medical industry, especially the POCT industry. The full text of POCT is point-of-care testing, which is instant detection, and more vividly, bedside detection. He is an emerging segment of in vitro diagnostics. The concept of POCT was proposed in the 1980s and 1990s. The speed of technological development and marketization is very fast. Today, the global market is over 10 billion US dollars, and it is increasing at a rate of more than 10% per year.
As the market demands become higher, POCT technology is also moving toward higher (efficiency), faster (faster), and stronger (big), and the technology change is leading to the application of microfluidic chips. The microfluidic chip can completely integrate all the functions of a skyscraper into a small paper box, and the accuracy is greatly improved, and the accuracy is also guaranteed. This interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary chip technology has already entered the market.
New weapon for blood tests - instant micro blood test
Laboratory chip technology, also known as micro-analysis system, can detect hemoglobin, electrolytes, blood oxygen, heart index, etc. by detecting trace amounts (2, 3 drops) of whole blood in just a few minutes. The project will escort the patient for surgery or further health care as soon as possible.
Abbott i-STAT system portable device
It seems like a fantasy - how many times can you accurately detect the above indicators and form a document? Now there is a product: Abbott’s i-STAT system. It is based on laboratory chip technology and was officially launched in 2011 for emergency, rescue and family doctors. It integrates the inspection and instrumentation of the entire inspection laboratory into a test system, which is about the same size as the ipad, so that it is truly portable.
The domestic equipment includes portable instruments, portable printers, bases, simulators and reagent cards. The set price is more than 100,000 yuan. The portable instrument is light in weight and almost equal to ipadAIR, but it can store thousands of inspection reports. The printer interconnect will report immediately.
Abbott i-STAT System Test Card
In addition to portable instruments, the i-STAT system is the most important reagent card. It can be said that it is the highest form of microfluidic chip display. Different microchips are arranged in different areas of a small test card. Cards are used to prevent cross-contamination. The practicality of the reagent card is even more powerful. It can detect blood gas indexes such as blood coagulation, electrolytes, blood pH value, blood oxygen and blood carbon dioxide concentration in emergency first aid; it can also test blood biochemistry, myocardial markers and other health indicators, which is convenient for family doctors.
The most important thing is that the i-STAT system has a short detection time. The average item has a result of 2 minutes. The longest myocardial marker takes only 10 minutes. It also requires a small amount of blood, usually only 20-80 ul, and does not need Complex sample processing, whole blood can be added directly. Moreover, in order to ensure the measurement accuracy, each time the specimen is tested, there is a comparison calibration. Combined with the automatic calibration function of the instrument, the i-STAT system can match the test results of large laboratories. If you have to pick out the bones in the egg, you can't use fingertip blood instead of venous blood.
In this way, his advantages compared with the laboratory test are obvious: the miniaturization of the instrument is better than the large-scale equipment; the large-scale instrument will take an hour to measure the time, and the i-STAT system can be said to be a second; Although there are not many large-scale equipment, the current inspection projects, routine inspections are sufficient, and Abbott is actively developing related inspection projects. It is also better than the current mature POCT products: although fingertip blood can not be used, the accuracy and time of detection are stronger than these products, and it also requires no professional operation.
A weapon to deal with sudden outbreaks - nucleic acid POCT detection
This is another milestone in the scientific and technological community. Especially in response to the outbreak, in order to understand the deadly virus, it is necessary to collect samples on the spot and get qualified laboratories (think of Africa, the backward areas of Southeast Asia), many researchers. Dozens of hours of experimentation can produce results and know what the epidemic is. When the results reach the epidemic area, it is possible that a few days have passed, and countless people have died. As the nucleic acid POCT detection technology matures, it is only necessary to take it with you, and directly analyze it after the epidemic situation is collected. As a result, it can be effectively prevented.
Test tube laboratory technology is also the most popular technology at the moment. It can be said to put a molecular laboratory or molecular experiment building into a small box, more specifically, into a small glass tube. The realization of this technology has a qualitative impact on nucleic acid detection: it takes several doctors, it takes dozens of hours, several instruments, and the experiment that can be abandoned with a little carelessness, now only needs one person, just add the sample. It is.
Development of nucleic acid POCT detection
Nowadays, this technology has also been officially produced. IQuum, which was acquired by Roche, has passed the FDA approval for the detection of influenza A and B viruses. Other companies have corresponding products. Currently, they are all detecting pathogens for sudden outbreaks and natural disasters. Prevention and control. IQuum's products are small, easy to operate, fast in process and reliable in results.
POCT testing products after Roche acquired IQuum
Although the new technology has been put on the market, it is far from mature, and the demand for such products is increasing day by day. Therefore, the opportunities for latecomers are still great. POCT products are a sunrise industry, especially for the development. The development prospects of the Chinese market are even broader under the government's relevant policies.
Source: Singularity Network
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