Highly-Sensitive Point-of-Care Diagnostics & Disease Monitoring

Description

This technology is a novel, highly-sensitive platform to diagnose and monitor diseases in real time at a doctor’s office.  Many chronic diseases like cancer and IBD do not have initial screening tests and solely rely on invasive, uncomfortable and time-consuming procedures (like biopsies and colonoscopies).  Having a less invasive screening test would assist in reducing the number of patients who would need more invasive testing, and in some cases, it may eliminate the need for additional, more expensive and burdensome procedures.  

To that end, this infrared spectroscopy system enables the early detection of unique biochemical fingerprints (or biomarkers) associated with different disease states.  In turn, this system may enable early diagnosis, disease progression monitoring, therapeutic efficacy assessment and research across varied medical fields such as immunology, inflammatory diseases, and oncology.  Among many patient groups who would benefit, this will be especially important for pediatric or other patients who cannot withstand invasive testing.

Benefits

• Minimally or Non-Invasive – requires only small amounts of biological samples (e.g., saliva, serum, etc.), potentially reducing reliance on invasive procedures like biopsies or colonoscopies
• Rapid and Sensitive – detects biochemical changes at molecular level, enabling early detection of disease states for quick treatment response decisions
• Flexible – broad applicability across multiple diseases, including inflammatory diseases (e.g. colitis, IBD) and cancerous conditions (e.g. oral, skin, blood cancers)

Applications

• Point-of-care diagnostic devices and clinical laboratories
• Early detection, diagnosis and monitoring of inflammatory bowel diseases such as colitis and IBD
• Screening and diagnosis of cancers such as melanoma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and oral cancers
• Identification and monitoring of cellular activation states in immunological research
• Potential for personalized monitoring of chemotherapeutic treatment responses
• Biomedical research and pharmaceutical development focused on biomarker discovery
• Non-invasive health screening tools in hospitals and outpatient settings

Patent Status

• US9983129B2 - Early detection of cell activation by ATR-FTIR spectroscopy - Google Patents
• US10527544B2 - ATR-FTIR for non-invasive detection of colitis - Google Patents
• US11280732B2 - Detection of melanoma and lymphoma by ATR-FTIR spectroscopy - Google Patents
• Provisional Applications Pending

Publications

Early detection of cell activation events by means of attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy | Applied Physics Letters | AIP Publishing

Minimally invasive screening for colitis using attenuated total internal reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy - PMC

ATR-FTIR spectral discrimination between normal and tumorous mouse models of lymphoma and melanoma from serum samples - PubMed

Spectral biomarker studies for tracking colitis progression in dextran sodium sulphate treated mouse sera using ATR-FTIR spectroscopy