COVID-19 and beyond - Understanding infectious diseases
COVID-19 and beyond - Understanding infectious diseases
COVID-19 has brought laboratory medicine into focus in many areas. Chemical, microbiological and immunological procedures enable precise diagnostics in the laboratory. Physicians can now identify diseases even more precisely and suggest therapies based on laboratory findings. Experience the innovative technologies and explore the laboratory of the future.
Discover the most innovative laboratory medical techniques!
Looking for new laboratory techniques? Products and exhibitors for laboratory technology and diagnostics can be found in the MEDICA 2020 catalogue!
Researchers who focus on fat know that some adipose tissue is more prone to inflammation-related comorbidities than others, but the reasons why are not well understood. Thanks to a new analytical technique, scientists are getting a clearer view of the microenvironments found within adipose tissue associated with obesity.
Working with colleagues from Germany and the US, researchers at Leipzig University have achieved a breakthrough in research into how cancer cells spread. In experiments, the team of biophysicists led by Professor Josef Alfons Käs, Steffen Grosser and Jürgen Lippoldt demonstrated for the first time how cells deform in order to move in dense tumor tissues and squeeze past neighboring cells.
With the help of artificial intelligence (AI) a German-American team of scientists deciphered some of the more elusive instructions encoded in DNA. Their neural network trained on high-resolution maps of protein-DNA interactions uncovers subtle DNA sequence patterns throughout the genome, thus providing a deeper understanding of how these sequences are organized to regulate genes.
Mass spectrometry (MS) is a powerful method for biomarker analysis because it enables highly sensitive and accurate measurement of target molecules in clinical samples. The application of MS to clinical diagnosis, such as neonatal metabolic screening, has been progressing with a focus on metabolite markers.
Is the tissue healthy or pathologically altered? Is the antibiotic effective against a certain bacterium or is the bacterium resistant to it? Raman spectroscopy can help to answer such questions quickly and precisely. However, one challenge for the use of the light-based analysis method in everyday clinical practice is that the results can be highly sensitive to the measurement conditions.
To study early stages in embryonic development in the cell culture dish, scientists use so-called human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC). These are cells with have remarkable special properties that can be multiplied as they can indefinitely multiply and are capable of forming any functional cell type of the body.
For the first time, engineered heart muscle (EHM) from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) will be used to treat patients with heart failure. After regulatory approval, recruitment of the first patient for the first-in-class, first-in-patient BioVAT-HF early clinical trial has started in Göttingen, Germany.
A specialized laboratory of the ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research, University of Bern, headed by Olivier Guenat has developed a new generation of in-vitro models called organs-on-chip for over 10 years, focusing on modeling the lung and its diseases.
A team of engineers and scientists has developed a method of 'multiplying' organoids: miniature collections of cells that mimic the behavior of various organs and are promising tools for the study of human biology and disease.
Colorectal cancer screening rates jumped by more than 1,000 percent when researchers sent take-at-home tests to patients overdue for testing at a community health center that predominantly serves people of color.
A Cleveland Clinic-led team of researchers has developed a personalized genomic medicine platform that will help advance accelerate genomic medicine research and genome-informed drug discovery, according to new study results published in Genome Biology.
Doctors are increasingly using genetic signatures to diagnose diseases and determine the best course of care, but using DNA sequencing and other techniques to detect genomic rearrangements remains costly or limited in capabilities.
The treatment of cancer with new, individualized cell therapies is usually very costly and lengthy. Before treatment can take place, patients often have to wait a long time for individualized therapeutics to be produced and they lose valuable time.
A team from the Gamma and Neutron Spectroscopy Group of the Corpuscular Physics Institute (IFIC) has patented a new device for real-time guided biopsies, with direct application in any type of cancer that requires a biopsy and whose process must be carried out using ultrasound.
The Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB; Bellinzona, Switzerland), affiliated to the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) developed a second-generation 'double antibody' that protects from SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19, and all its tested variants. It also prevents the virus from mutating to resist the therapy.
Viral respiratory diseases are easily transmissible and can spread rapidly across the globe, causing significant damage. The ongoing covid-19 pandemic is a testament to this. In the past too, other viruses have caused massive respiratory disease outbreaks: for example, a subtype of the influenza virus, the type A H1N1 virus, was responsible for the Spanish flu and the Swine flu outbreaks.
Successful precision cancer diagnosis through an AI analysis of multiple factors of prostate cancer. Potential application of the precise diagnoses of other cancers by utilizing a urine test.
The neocortex is the part of the brain that humans use to process sensory impressions, store memories, give instructions to the muscles, and plan for the future. These computational processes are possible because each nerve cell is a highly complex miniature computer that communicates with around 10,000 other neurons. This communication happens via special connections called synapses.
Chronic inflammatory bowel disease (CIBD) in particular is suspected to be closely linked to the composition and (im-)balance of the intestinal microbiome. However, the causal relationship between the microbiome and the development of disease and determining factors of the composition of the microbiome in the individual are still largely unexplained.
Researchers at Lund University in Sweden, in collaboration with colleagues in Dresden, Germany, have developed a way of combining a bone substitute and drugs to regenerate bone and heal severe fractures in the thigh or shin bone.
Just a few millimetres thick, articular cartilage plays a crucial role in our musculoskeletal system, since it is responsible for smooth (in the truest sense of the word) movement. However, the downside of its particular structure is that even minor injuries do not regenerate. Timely treatment of cartilage damage is therefore essential.
Imagine going to a surgeon to have a diseased or injured organ switched out for a fully functional, laboratory-grown replacement. This remains science fiction and not reality because researchers today struggle to organize cells into the complex 3D arrangements that our bodies can master on their own.
Organoids are increasingly being used in biomedical research. These are organ-like structures created in the laboratory that are only a few millimetres in size. Organoids can be used to study life processes and the effect of drugs. Because they closely resemble real organs, they offer several advantages over other cell cultures.
One of the most vexing aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic is doctors' inability to predict which newly hospitalized patients will go on to develop severe disease, including complications that require the insertion of a breathing tube, kidney dialysis or other intensive care.
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University report findings on an advanced nanomaterial-based biosensing platform that detects, within seconds, antibodies specific to SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to testing, the platform will help to quantify patient immunological response to the new vaccines with precision.
Smartlab – Robotics and automation in the laboratory
Some tasks in the laboratory are repetitive, need to be done extremely precise and require a lot of time. Such tasks are very tedious for humans, but they are tailor-made for robots. Such is the case with the "AutoCRAT" project at the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT in Aachen. Here, a robotic platform is developed to produce stem cells for the treatment of osteoarthritis. Hear how this works and what it looks like from Ferdinand Biermann and Jelena Ochs in our video interview.
Disinfection methods of hospital drinking water - Fully automatic legionella prevention
Besides hand hygiene, drinking water hygiene is also on the to-do list of every hospital. A lot of money is invested to clean water pipes and to destroy legionella germs. An alternative solution for mechanical and thermal control is water disinfection using an automatic machine. Dr. Bernhard Heising, infection specialist and hospital hygienist at Düren Hospital, Germany, describes in an interview why the hospital uses this solution and what advantages it offers.