Diagnosing AIDS, Disease Diagnosis, Paternity Test

The Ikerlan Centres for Technological Research, connected to the Mondragon Corporacion Cooperativa (MCC), has been selected to lead the European Optolab Card project the aim of which is to design and build up a device for the quick and effective diagnosis in the treatment and natural reduction of infectious diseases, evermore present due to the high mobility of carriers.

The Ikerlan-led project involves a device which is made up of a portable base and a card that functions as a laboratory and that automatically controls bacteria-provoked health risks by means of real-time finding of DNA - from sample preparation to visual detection.

There are various technology centres from the Basque Country are participating in the project such as Gaiker and the Basque Foundation for Innovation and Research in Healthcare (BIOEF), in addition to other centres and companies from Germany, Sweden, Denmark ,Austria and Poland. The project is due to last for 3 years and it will take an additional three for the new device to be on the market.

The optic laboratory miniaturised on a card will detect salmonellosis, the pathogen with the maximum incidence level right through the European Union (40.7 persons per 100,000 inhabitants). Moreover, the diagnostic ability of the new device is very varied, being able to detect and distinguish chains of DNA. For example, it can able to detect other infectious diseases such as tuberculosis,flu, hepatitis, AIDS, etc.

Diagnosis in 15 minutes

Another advantages of the optic card laboratory is that it is the first system to offer a rapid diagnosis of an infectious disease within 15 minutes, given that present analytical methods need a huge number of samples and protocols that cause the tests to take from 6 hours to 2 days to be carried out, sufficient time for a whole community or a important part of the population to turn out to be infected.

Possible upcoming applications of the laboratory card are also highly significant, as they can provide doctors with devices for hereditary diagnosis for the early detection of molecular diseases, such as degenerative ones (Parkinson’s, Alzheimer and so on), paternity tests, genetic disorders, as well as forensic medicine applications.

The survival of the laboratory card is also intended to significantly improve the quality of the health system, minimizing hospital admissions, the time exhausted in hospital and costs relating to diagnoses. The request of this device will have a great bearing on the minimizing of infectious diseases.

This is not the initial European project in which Ikerlan is involved. This MCC-linked Centre for Technological Research is at present developing new advanced systems for the diagnosis of cancer, functioning together with the Basque body Gaiker and BIOEF. This project, relating a total of 11 countries, will last four years.