A new one-step diagnostic device created by researchers in the
campus laboratory of Response Biomedical Corp. at the University
of British Columbia may soon replace time-consuming and costly trips
to a clinical testing laboratory.
The Rapid Analyte Measurement Platform (RAMP) will be able to test
for infectious diseases, and monitor levels of therapeutic drugs
in asthma and heart disease patients as well as hemoglobin levels
in diabetics.
Co-inventor Don Brooks, a professor of Pathology and Laboratory
Medicine estimates the device can replace 250 diagnostic tests currently
done in laboratories.
“By changing the test sticks we can measure everything from hepatitis
B virus to antibiotics in cow’s milk,” he says. “The RAMP can be
modified to test new diseases as they develop.”
The RAMP works like a more sophisticated version of a home pregnancy
test. A single-use test stick carrying a drop of blood, urine or
saliva is inserted into a portable reader about the size of a desk
phone. Within five to 15 minutes a digital display shows quantitative
information previously available only from a diagnostic laboratory.
Designed for use in an emergency room, doctor’s office, ambulance
or at a patient’s bedside, the unit requires no technical training
to operate. The reader needs no servicing because the test sticks
have an internal control that virtually eliminates a false reading.
“The method is simple and fast,” says Dana Devine, an associate
professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and another of the
RAMP’s inventors. “It can be used by emergency room staff to get
immediate diagnostic information and by physicians who regularly
test patients for drug, enzyme or hormone levels.”
Point-of-care diagnostic information is less expensive overall
than conventional laboratory testing, says Brooks. Each reader will
cost less than $1,000 compared to laboratory systems which can cost
$250,000 or more.
The device will be manufactured and marketed to the worldwide $20
billion diagnostics industry by Response Biomedical Corp., a company
specializing in point-of-care diagnostics tests for the human health,
food safety and environmental markets.
UBC research results in more than $200 million in direct and indirect
spending annually in the local economy. More than 223 technologies
developed at UBC have been licensed for use around the world.
-30-
