A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia reported being awarded $470,000 from a private foundation for the development of new technologies aimed at improving cancer detection.

Xudong Fan and John Viator, assistant biological engineering professors in the College of Engineering and College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources at the university, received grants from the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation, a Florida non-profit foundation supporting biomedical research.

They will build desktop computer-type devices that can be used for everyday clinical practice.

Fan will receive $238,000 for a prototype device capable of rapidly detecting cancer molecules using a single blood sample, testing for a number of proteins or DNA molecules that, if found together, indicate cancer.

"Within one doctor's visit, you could get results," Fan said.

Viator will receive $232,000 for a laser device that works with sound waves to detect melanoma, by bombarding blood samples with laser light, sparking sound waves if it runs into as few as 30 melanoma cells. His goal is to make the mechanism sensitive enough to detect a single melanoma cell.

In other grants/contracts news:

Luminex (Austin, Texas), a multiplex solution developer, reported receiving a 12-month research grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which will be administered through the Department of the Army's U.S. Army Research Office.

The $300,000 grant will focus on developing the company's emerging chip-scale xMAP technology for biodefense applications.

The chip-scale concept is an approach that leverages Luminex's flagship xMAP technology, a bead-based flow cytometry solution for multiplexing biological assays, to perform the detection of bio-pathogens on the scale of a microchip.

"A successful and practical solution for biosensors to combat terrorism will require a compact, and relatively inexpensive detector capable of doing species identification with high sensitivity and specificity; that is precisely the goal of the chip-scale xMAP technology project," said Dr. John Carrano, vice president of research and development.

A researcher at Purdue University (West Lafayette, Indiana) is leading an effort to manufacture low-cost devices making it possible to perform widespread medical testing for AIDS victims in Africa and enable them to receive treatment.

A $250,000 gift from manufacturer Parker Hannifin (Cleveland) is helping launch the project.

The cell analyzers being developed, costing about $5,000, could measure the blood's content of CD4 cells that indicate how well a patient's immune system is holding up and how far AIDS has advanced.

Normal CD4 cell counts of 500 to 1,500 are depleted by AIDS. By definition, counts of less than 200 and the presence of the HIV virus are diagnostic indicators for AIDS.

"Unless patients in Africa are found to have CD4 counts of less than 200, they cannot receive antiviral treatment, but the machines now in use are too expensive for most Africans to afford," said J. Paul Robinson, a professor in Purdue's schools of biomedical engineering and veterinary medicine.

Robinson's research is based at the Bindley Bioscience Center in the university's Discovery Park.

Flow cytometers are used to perform blood analysis for CD4, but the machines which cost up to $100,000 are too complex to maintain and too expensive to operate in Africa and other resource-poor nations, Robinson said. The new devices essentially would be simplified flow cytometers.

"The current cost for CD4 tests per patient in Africa is about $12, which is ridiculous since the monthly income of someone in Africa often is less than $10," Robinson said. "We believe that we can build a device that will reduce the cost for CD4 tests to 50 or 25 cents."

PerkinElmer (Boston) reported signing a "multi-year, multimillion dollar" agreement to supply the State of Texas with instruments, software and reagents to enhance the state's newborn screening program.

The technology will be used to test for metabolic disorders in the estimated 375,000 infants born in Texas each year.

PerkinElmer will provide the Texas Department of State Health Services Laboratory with tandem mass spectrometry systems, as well as reagent kits and software to support the program.

Robert Friel, president of PerkinElmer Life and Analytical Sciences, said, "By utilizing this leading technology, we are able to detect potentially devastating metabolic disorders at an early stage to allow for better treatment and management options, leading to an improved quality of life."

PerkinElmer said it has now signed long-term agreements for tandem mass spectrometry solutions with nine states.

In addition to Texas, they include Alabama, California, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Pennsylvania and South Carolina.

PerkinElmer bills itself as the world's leading supplier to newborn screening laboratories.