Innovative image sensing technology for early diagnosis of diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease
Professor Kazuaki Sawada and Dr. Takigawa of the National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology and colleagues at Toyohashi University of Technology have established an easy to use, low-cost, rapid, and high sensitivity semiconductor-imaging based medical diagnostic biosensing system for analyzing blood and urine for early diagnosis of ailments including diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease.
The new biosensing technology consists of a semiconductor image sensor ( ‘charge coupled device’ developed by Toyohashi University of Technology) that is sensitive to extremely small changes in electric potential, and microbeads on which antigen-antibody reactions take place. This technology will enable monitoring and diagnosis of diseases for which specific markers are known using very small volumes of blood or urine. Specifically, this technology has detected amiloid beta-peptide, an agent responsible for Alzheimer’s disease.
Contracting a disease leads to expression of proteins specific to the diseases in the blood. This new technology is used for early diagnosis of diseases by using this specific protein as the antigen and a marker that captures the protein as the antibody and checking their antigen-antibody reaction. Conventional protocols used to monitor antibody-antigen reactions employ fluorescent probes and detection of fluorescence with microscopic cameras. This process is time consuming because of the necessity to measure fluorescence from the probes and cannot be used to detect low concentrations of antigens when the fluorescence intensity is too low to detect optically.
With this technology, a antigen-antibody reaction is used as in conventional methods, but fluorescence is not measured. Instead, this method employs a semiconductor image sensor to detect minute changes in electric potential generated during an antigen-antibody reaction.
Implementation of the technology will be tested for daily control of lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and in future the technology will be expanded for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’ diseases.
Original publication
Other news from the department science
These products might interest you
Octet R2 / Octet R4 / Octet R8 by Sartorius
Full power on 2, 4 or 8 channels: Label-free and GxP-compliant analysis of molecular interactions
Innovative label-free real-time protein quantification, binding kinetics and rapid screenings
Octet SF3 by Sartorius
Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) using Single Dynamic Injections for Kinetics and Affinities
Curvature is Key - Adding a ‘Third Dimension’ to the Binding Curve
Octet RH16 and RH96 by Sartorius
Efficient protein analysis for process optimisation and manufacturing control in high-throughput
Label-free protein quantification and characterization of protein-protein interactions
Get the life science industry in your inbox
From now on, don't miss a thing: Our newsletter for biotechnology, pharma and life sciences brings you up to date every Tuesday and Thursday. The latest industry news, product highlights and innovations - compact and easy to understand in your inbox. Researched by us so you don't have to.
Most read news
More news from our other portals
See the theme worlds for related content
Topic world Diagnostics
Diagnostics is at the heart of modern medicine and forms a crucial interface between research and patient care in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. It not only enables early detection and monitoring of disease, but also plays a central role in individualized medicine by enabling targeted therapies based on an individual's genetic and molecular signature.
Topic world Diagnostics
Diagnostics is at the heart of modern medicine and forms a crucial interface between research and patient care in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. It not only enables early detection and monitoring of disease, but also plays a central role in individualized medicine by enabling targeted therapies based on an individual's genetic and molecular signature.
