Sandia National Laboratories www.sandia.gov operated by Lockheed Martin for the Department of Energy https://energy.gov has demonstrated that their SpinDx system can now simultaneously detect dozens of diseases including HIV and Tuberculosis in just 15 minutes.
The work demonstrating HIV and TB detection using SpinDx was made possible through a grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) www.niaid.nih.gov an institute within NIH, and by partnering with the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston www.utmb.edu.
One common way to test for HIV and TB is through the ELISA test. Although SpinDx uses an ELISA-type test, the problem is that ELISA test plates must be washed in between steps to prevent antibodies from sticking to elements in the blood that aren’t the targets.
This labor-intensive requirement results in tests taking about three hours. SpinDx is able to do the test less expensively, more quickly, and more reliably than the existing tests now performed separately.
Also, the SpinDx system, a four pound lab-on-a-disc system, can determine not only whether a patient has a current HIV or TB infection , but can also determine whether a patient has ever been exposed to these illnesses. Differentiating between latent and active infections is significant because it allows doctors to determine whether aggressive treatment measures are warranted.
If there is a reaction in a SpinDx test, a red laser causes the tip of the microchannel to glow, signaling the presence of an infectious agent. The lasers interact with computer algorithms to determine a positive or negative result. When connected to a computer, SpinDx also supplies information on the amount of virus in a sample. The use of lasers and algorithms are inherently more sensitive than unaided vision alone.
So far, only three patient samples have been tested so the next step is to test the system with more patient samples over a longer period of time. The hope is that new partners will be able to take the technology and advance the tests to move beyond proof-of-concept. At this point, SpinDx will be used to detect diseases in areas with limited resources.