Magnetic Particle Handling |
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Magnetic particles can be aggregated and washed free of inhibitors and contaminants. The General Objective
Concentrate all the bacteria from sample into 100 µL of buffer. In PCR applications, the focus is to remove all the PCR inhibitors and present the bacteria in samples in a volume suitable for PCR. The specific areas under investigation are;
| Investigation | Target | Challenge | Samples | | Concentration and purification | Tuberculosis | Thinned sputum is mixed with binding beads and processed in a flow through chamber in the KymaSep.
The beads, with TB attached are held and washed free of contaminants that can interfere in microscopy, culture or PCR detection.
The final stage of the process concentrates the beads into 100 µL and ejects from chamber for detection by one of the methods. | Sputum | Isolation from faeces
| Mycobacterium paratuberculosis (Johne’s disease)
| Johne’s disease is difficult to detect using PCR due to the high level of inhibitors present in the cattle faeces. ProKyma is investigating its method of sample clean-up in collaboration with the Veterinary Laboratory Agency to improve the current methods. | Cattle Faeces
| Isolation from Blood
| Rare Cells | KymaSep can be used as an automated method to stain specific cells and wash away red cell debris that interferes with flow cytometry detection.
Another approach uses magnetic particles to selectively enrich rare cells from whole blood without any differential lysis steps. | Whole Blood
| | Blood Grouping/ Immunoassay | Various
| ProKyma has already demonstrated use of KymaSep for blood grouping. It is currently assessing feasibility as an immunoassay platform, with the objective of integrating blood grouping and infectious disease testing onto one instrument.
Any immunoassay test will lend itself to this approach and we aim to demonstrate that the no-moving parts aspect of the instrument can be adapted into the next generation of clinical analysers. | Various |
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