New
Scientist: Two techniques involving magnets could
significantly reduce the time it takesfrom days to
hoursto diagnose a fatal infection, writes Jessica
Hamzelou for
New Scientist. A team at MIT has created a device that
uses magnetic resonance to detect a fungus called
Candida, which has a 40% mortality rate. Because there
are five species of
Candida, the team engineered five types of molecular
probe, each of which contains a magnetic particle. When the
probes are put into blood samples and a magnetic pulse is
applied, the water molecules begin to spin; the time it takes
for the molecules to return to rest determines whether a
species of
Candida is present and how much of it there is. A
second team at Harvard University has been working to diagnose
sepsis. Team members coated magnetic particles with an
immune-system protein that binds to the cell walls of pathogens
in the blood. The entire cluster can be pulled out using a
magnet, and the pathogen can then be identified. "In my opinion
both techniques could significantly advance the field of
diagnostics.... It's pretty cool," said Dirk Kuhlmeier at the
Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology in
Leipzig, Germany.
