The can provide accurate and reliable results in real time rather than the two to five days required for existing processes that test infections and antibiotic vulnerabilities, its creators claim.

“Advances in lab-on-a-chip microfluidic technology are allowing us to build smaller and more intricate devices that, in the medical research space, can provide more information for health care practitioners while requiring less invasive sampling from patients,” explained Mohammad Zarifi, an assistant professor at UBC Okanagan.

In a study hosted by the Microelectronics and Advanced Sensors Laboratory at the university’s Okanagan campus, Zarifi and his research group tested the device by tracking the number of bacteria present in a variety of samples under various scenarios that scenarios resemble those within clinical microbiological laboratory environments.

“The diagnostic tool not only provides a rapid, label-free and contactless diagnostic tool for clinical analysis, but it also goes further,” said Zarifi.

According to healthcare statistics from 2017, every hour of delay in antibiotic treatment increases the risk of death by nearly 8 per cent due to complications in the bloodstream.

“The device is able to rapidly detect bacteria and in addition; it screens the interaction of that bacteria with antibiotics,” Zarifi added. “The combined results give health care practitioners more information than they currently have available, helping them move forward to determine accurate treatments.”

Zarifi believes the biosensor is a significant step forward in improving the complex antibiotic susceptibility testing workflow and provides a rapid and automated detection of bacteria as well as screening bacterial proliferation in response to antibiotics.

In late October, researchers based at McMaster University, Ontario, Canada, developed a ‘smart’ nanosurface, capable of repelling essentially everything, except for specified substances that boost effectiveness and safety.

Earlier in October, in a collaborative project between Northwestern University and Washington University, a bioelectronic device was demonstrated that stimulates faster nerve regeneration in a rat model, paving the way for “bioelectronic medicine”.

The can provide accurate and reliable results in real time rather than the two to five days required for existing processes that test infections and antibiotic vulnerabilities, its creators claim.

“Advances in lab-on-a-chip microfluidic technology are allowing us to build smaller and more intricate devices that, in the medical research space, can provide more information for health care practitioners while requiring less invasive sampling from patients,” explained Mohammad Zarifi, an assistant professor at UBC Okanagan.

In a study hosted by the Microelectronics and Advanced Sensors Laboratory at the university’s Okanagan campus, Zarifi and his research group tested the device by tracking the number of bacteria present in a variety of samples under various scenarios that scenarios resemble those within clinical microbiological laboratory environments.

“The diagnostic tool not only provides a rapid, label-free and contactless diagnostic tool for clinical analysis, but it also goes further,” said Zarifi.

According to healthcare statistics from 2017, every hour of delay in antibiotic treatment increases the risk of death by nearly 8 per cent due to complications in the bloodstream.

“The device is able to rapidly detect bacteria and in addition; it screens the interaction of that bacteria with antibiotics,” Zarifi added. “The combined results give health care practitioners more information than they currently have available, helping them move forward to determine accurate treatments.”

Zarifi believes the biosensor is a significant step forward in improving the complex antibiotic susceptibility testing workflow and provides a rapid and automated detection of bacteria as well as screening bacterial proliferation in response to antibiotics.

In late October, researchers based at McMaster University, Ontario, Canada, developed a ‘smart’ nanosurface, capable of repelling essentially everything, except for specified substances that boost effectiveness and safety.

Earlier in October, in a collaborative project between Northwestern University and Washington University, a bioelectronic device was demonstrated that stimulates faster nerve regeneration in a rat model, paving the way for “bioelectronic medicine”.