{"id":36817,"date":"2010-07-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-07-14T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2010\/07\/14\/engineering-better-diagnostics-for-tuberculosis\/"},"modified":"2022-09-02T20:14:24","modified_gmt":"2022-09-03T01:14:24","slug":"engineering-better-diagnostics-for-tuberculosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2010\/07\/14\/engineering-better-diagnostics-for-tuberculosis\/","title":{"rendered":"Engineering better diagnostics for tuberculosis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hendrik Viljoen, Ph.D., didn’t plan to tackle one of the world’s deadliest bacteria.<\/p>\n

He was, after all, an engineer, not a clinical researcher.<\/p>\n

But, Dr. Viljoen has developed new technologies that have the potential to diagnose tuberculosis (TB) in the developing world more quickly and more accurately than any test used today.<\/p>\n

“It’s an engineering novelty,” said the professor, who has a joint appointment in UNMC’s Department of Internal Medicine – Infectious Diseases and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Chemical and
\nBiomolecular Engineering Department. “When people move comfortably between disciplines they become more innovative.”<\/p>\n


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\nHendrik Viljoen, Ph.D. and Alison Freifeld, M.D.
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\n<\/TABLE>Alison Freifeld, M.D., agrees. <\/p>\n

Since 2008, she has provided the medical expertise and collaborative laboratory studies that have resulted in clinical testing of the technology in Dr. Viljoen’s native South Africa.<\/p>\n

“For more than 100 years, smear microscopy has been used to diagnose TB,” said Dr. Freifeld, professor of internal medicine\/infectious diseases at UNMC. “We want to replace that with a 21st century technology that is adapted to the constraints of resource-poor areas of the world. It must be fast, simple and cheap.”<\/p>\n

Smear microscopy has many constraints in the developing world, Dr. Viljoen said. Culture samples (sputum) are sent to the nearest large city with a lab and usually take six weeks. The test is time consuming, labor intensive and 60 percent sensitive at best.<\/p>\n


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\nThis story first appeared in the Spring 2010 edition of UNMC Discover<\/a>.
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\n<\/TABLE>Drs. Viljoen and Freifeld along with a team of engineers and scientists have devised a point-of-care diagnostic device that collects sputum samples, extracts and amplifies target regions on the DNA using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and then optically detects TB products with fluorescent molecular beacons.<\/p>\n

Using their unique thermocycler, the PCR reaction takes less than 20 minutes and appears to be more sensitive than existing diagnostics.<\/p>\n

The final version of the technology is expected to cost less than $10 a test and reduce staff demand and the infection risk of health care workers. Existing devices take two hours to diagnose, an $80,000 machine and costly reagents.<\/p>\n

“The rapid PCR technology has been tested in South Africa and holds much promise as a point-of-care device for third-world countries,” said Michael Dixon, Ph.D., president of UNeMed Corporation, the technology transfer arm of UNMC. “It’s also generating revenue for the university.”<\/p>\n<\/a><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hendrik Viljoen, Ph.D., didn’t plan to tackle one of the world’s deadliest bacteria.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","department-unmc-today-todays-headlines"],"yoast_head":"\nEngineering better diagnostics for tuberculosis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hendrik Viljoen, Ph.D., didn't plan to tackle one of 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