A Canadian company is pushing forward to developed to indicate a positive result only when the Covid-19 virus is present, allowing for direct and clear interpretation. When completed, this test Covid-19 test is expected to produce results in 5-15 minutes and is anticipated to cost less than $50. It will not require any additional laboratory-based equipment and can be administered by a layperson at the point of care. Until now the majority of testing completed for Covid-19 uses molecular-based technology (PCR), a testing platform that typically costs more than $200 per test, frequently takes 2-4 hours to produce results, and…
Author: Brett Johnson
For diagnosing SARS-CoV-2, a PCR test starts with a nasopharyngeal swab, which looks like a long Q-tip that draws mucus from the back of a patient’s nasal cavity where it meets the throat. This swab goes in a vial and is shipped to an FDA-approved central lab facility. There, technicians use reagents to extract any viral RNA. An enzyme called reverse transcriptase converts the RNA to a complementary sequence of DNA, which can be replicated many times over to make it easy to detect. To accomplish this replication and detection, technicians—or automated machines, in most cases—add additional reagents that include…
This will include a range of perspectives in the week in review. Is the cure worse than the disease? It appears physicians immersed in the midst of it all are seeing it that way. Most compelling was an opinion written by St. Barnabas Hospital Emergency director Daniel G. Murphy MD. The Bronx New York hospital which serves a lower income community is in the center of the pandemic. Another physician, Scott Atlas MD who is from Stanford has taken to the airwaves advocating an end to the lockdown. We summarize their perspectives as the controversy will likely grow. Both wrote…
An Anti-body Test vs. Antigen Test vs. the Lateral Assay Test Tests for Covid-19 can be divided into polymerise chain reaction (PCR), serologic tests and soon lateral Assay tests. These tests use different kinds of samples to search for different hallmarks of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. PCR (polymerise chain reaction). We take a look at these different approaches and their relative merits. PCR testing. Antigen test. The PCR test detects if the virus is there and someone is actively infected. genetic information of the virus, the RNA. By detecting viral RNA, which will be present in the body before antibodies form…
This modified PCR test overcomes the invasiveness of doing a nasal swab to detect the presence of the virus in the viral RNA, detected in saliva . Mirimus has taken the saliva test version of PCR tests into what I call large scale testing, you know, thousands of patients per day. The testing is done in pools, on the pools can be anything greater than two quickly and done overnight you can clear a whole group and you are then able to look at groups of individuals without violating the HIPAA rules and testing rules that state various states have.…
The site is designed to facilitate the transition of knowledge from Research to thought leaders collaborating toTechnologies that are then commercialized.
People diagnosed with advanced cancer can face a host of challenges and stresses, from navigating the health care system to dealing with relationship disruptions and figuring out how to spend the time they have left, that can leave them vulnerable to depression. Yet cancer centers and clinics don’t routinely provide psychological support to all advanced cancer patients to help them cope. In a new clinical trial, just three to six sessions of a tailored psychotherapy approach known as Managing Cancer and Living Meaningfully, or CALM, helped to lessen symptoms of depression in people recently diagnosed with advanced cancer. Results from the trial…
It’s not unusual for cancer survivors to report problems with memory, attention, learning, and processing of information months or even years after completing treatment. Scientists are just beginning to understand why some people are particularly susceptible to these cognitive difficulties, which patients often call chemobrain or chemofog. New findings from two related NCI-funded studies—a clinical study in older women and a mouse study—may help shed further light on genetic risk factors for developing cancer-related cognitive problems. The clinical study results point to the role of the E4 version (or E4 allele) of the APOE gene, which is a risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease.…