Iisc’s New Sample Storage, Transportation Technology To Help Bridge Diagnostics Gap | Bengaluru News
Bengaluru: A team of researchers from Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has developed a new technology that holds the potential to bridge gaps in preservation of specimens for optimum utilisation of existing diagnostics laboratory services.
In a new publication in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Lab on a Chip journal, the team led by Bhushan Toley, assistant professor in the department of chemical engineering, describes a specimen transportation technology called SPECTRA-Tube (Specimen Transportation Tube) that enables dry stabilisation of large volumes (more than 1ml) of liquid specimens for transportation to central laboratories.
“Technologies for preservation of specimens in the absence of cold chains are essential for optimum utilisation of existing laboratory services in the developing world. We present a prototype called SPECTRA-tube for the collection, exposure-free drying, ambient transportation, and liquid state recovery of large-volume specimens,” the researchers said in their study.
Specimens introduced into the SPECTRA-tube, they added, are dried in glass fibre membranes, which are critical for efficient liquid-state sample recovery by rehydration and centrifugation (the process to separate fluids of different densities).
SPECTRA-tube, which has been demonstrated for the dry storage of sputum (a mixture of saliva and mucus coughed up from the respiratory tract) for tuberculosis (TB) detection, also holds the potential for handling samples needed to diagnose other ailments.
“The team has demonstrated SPECTRA-tube’s application in dry stabilisation of sputum, and has shown that dried sputum can be recovered from this tube and used for molecular as well as culture-based diagnosis of TB,” IISc said.
Elaborating on the importance of the development, IISc said diagnostic services are essential to guiding treatment of many health conditions but that in developing countries diagnostic services are limited to well-equipped central laboratories in urban areas and the capability to conduct medical diagnostics rapidly drops in the remote regions.
“A large population in remote areas, therefore, does not have access to state-of-the-art medical diagnostic facilities. Central diagnostic laboratories are well equipped to conduct high throughput and high-quality diagnostic testing. However, their potential is often underutilised, in large part because of the absence of efficient cold chains for sample transportation, resulting in poor specimen quality,” the IISc said.
In a new publication in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Lab on a Chip journal, the team led by Bhushan Toley, assistant professor in the department of chemical engineering, describes a specimen transportation technology called SPECTRA-Tube (Specimen Transportation Tube) that enables dry stabilisation of large volumes (more than 1ml) of liquid specimens for transportation to central laboratories.
“Technologies for preservation of specimens in the absence of cold chains are essential for optimum utilisation of existing laboratory services in the developing world. We present a prototype called SPECTRA-tube for the collection, exposure-free drying, ambient transportation, and liquid state recovery of large-volume specimens,” the researchers said in their study.
Specimens introduced into the SPECTRA-tube, they added, are dried in glass fibre membranes, which are critical for efficient liquid-state sample recovery by rehydration and centrifugation (the process to separate fluids of different densities).
SPECTRA-tube, which has been demonstrated for the dry storage of sputum (a mixture of saliva and mucus coughed up from the respiratory tract) for tuberculosis (TB) detection, also holds the potential for handling samples needed to diagnose other ailments.
“The team has demonstrated SPECTRA-tube’s application in dry stabilisation of sputum, and has shown that dried sputum can be recovered from this tube and used for molecular as well as culture-based diagnosis of TB,” IISc said.
Elaborating on the importance of the development, IISc said diagnostic services are essential to guiding treatment of many health conditions but that in developing countries diagnostic services are limited to well-equipped central laboratories in urban areas and the capability to conduct medical diagnostics rapidly drops in the remote regions.
“A large population in remote areas, therefore, does not have access to state-of-the-art medical diagnostic facilities. Central diagnostic laboratories are well equipped to conduct high throughput and high-quality diagnostic testing. However, their potential is often underutilised, in large part because of the absence of efficient cold chains for sample transportation, resulting in poor specimen quality,” the IISc said.
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