Lab-on-Chip Device to Help Pick The Right Antibiotic Every Time
 

Lab-on-Chip Device to Help Pick The Right Antibiotic Every Time
http://cdn.medgadget.com/wp-content/...ular-probe.jpg

As bacterial infections are becoming more difficult to manage, new ways of targeting the pathogens have to be developed. Creating new antibiotics is one approach, but often the real issues is being able to identify which antibiotic will work. Today that takes days and involves guess work that often prevents a powerful early attack against the bacteria. Researchers at Johns Hopkins are **w working on a new tech**logy that will allow clinicians to identify the bacteria that is causing the infection and the antibiotic that will treat it.

The researchers are using microfluidic devices that can separate individual bacteria and tag them with fluorescent probes depending on the pathogens’ genetic composition. This will allow for quick identification of the specific bacteria in the patient sample. The next step is passing these bacteria through channels where different antibiotics have a chance at killing them. By spotting which antibiotics work, the team believes that the tech**logy will allow clinicians to make an accurate decision of which drug to use within about three hours of running a blood sample through the lab-on-a-chip microfluidic device.

Source: Johns Hopkins…

The post Lab-on-Chip Device to Help Pick The Right Antibiotic Every Time appeared first on Medgadget.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Medgadget?d=yIl2AUoC8zA http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Medgadget?d=qj6IDK7rITs http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Medg...MY:gIN9vFwOqvQ
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Medgadget/~4/XgTv8Xs7y2k