Indian Institute of Science's department of physics team of scientists have developed a new technology to detect many diseases in the early stages. The technology has the potential to revolutionize the diagnostic industry, as it would be possible to detect diseases on the first or the second day itself.
Discussions are on with the industry for a possible technology transfer. The technology developed by Dr. Ajay Sood and Dr. Ajay Negi from the department of Physics Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has been applied for patent protection through the Patent Cooperation Treaty of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).
In a presentation during the Indian Academy of Sciences meet, the scientists stated that when virus, bacteria or protoza infect the body, an antibody is produced by the human system to fight these microbes. In a path lab, antigens are used during disease detection. The effect of an antigen-antibody reaction can be seen as a colour change under a microscope to substantiate the diagnostics. For general diagnostics, antigen-based antibody reactions are assessed. Now the scientists have improved the efficiency of this technique by more than 100 times. It is possible to diagnose accurately even if the concentration of the antibodies are too low in the samples. The efficacy is enhanced by a factor of 100 and diseases can be detected on the second day itself. The new technology was also successfully tested on a typhoid detection kit designed by the Defence Research and Development Establishment, Gwalior. The procedure works on low voltage electric changes below a specific limit to apply to the sample solution to allow antigens and antibodies to team-up for wiping out the reaction.
Although ample work is complete, the IISc team opined that more studies are required to be done to assess the false positive and negative readings. Further, the team is also working to develop a prototype and calibrate for detection of many more diseases using just one instrument.