{"id":49032,"date":"2010-08-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-08-10T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2010\/08\/10\/unmc-unl-researchers-team-in-developing-improved-diagnostic-test-for-tb\/"},"modified":"2022-08-28T19:19:49","modified_gmt":"2022-08-29T00:19:49","slug":"unmc-unl-researchers-team-in-developing-improved-diagnostic-test-for-tb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2010\/08\/10\/unmc-unl-researchers-team-in-developing-improved-diagnostic-test-for-tb\/","title":{"rendered":"UNMC, UNL researchers team in developing improved diagnostic test for TB"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\"><p><b><i>Cheaper, quicker, more accurate test holds great promise<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<div style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\">Hendrik Viljoen, Ph.D., didn&#8217;t plan to tackle one of the world&#8217;s deadliest bacteria. He was, after all, an engineer, not a clinical researcher.<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\">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.<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\">&quot;It&#8217;s an engineering novelty,&quot; said the professor, who has a joint appointment in UNMC&#8217;s Department of Internal Medicine &#8211; Infectious Diseases and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln&#8217;s Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department. &quot;When people move comfortably between disciplines they become more innovative.&quot;<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\">Alison Freifeld, M.D., agrees.<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\">Since 2008, she has provided the medical expertise and collaborative laboratory studies that have resulted in clinical testing of the technology in Dr. Viljoen&#8217;s native South Africa.<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\">&quot;For more than 100 years, smear microscopy has been used to diagnose TB,&quot; said Dr. Freifeld, professor of internal medicine\/infectious diseases at UNMC. &quot;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.&quot;<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\">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.<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\">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.<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\">Using their unique thermocycler, the PCR reaction takes less than 20 minutes and appears to be more sensitive than existing diagnostics.<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\">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.<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\">&quot;The rapid PCR technology has been tested in South Africa and holds much promise as a point-of-care device for third-world countries,&quot; said Michael Dixon, Ph.D., president of UNeMed Corporation, the technology transfer arm of UNMC. &quot;It&#8217;s also generating revenue for the university.&quot;<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"line-height: normal;margin: 0in 0in 0pt\"><i><span style=\"color: black;font-size: 10pt\">Through world-class research and patient care, UNMC generates breakthroughs that make life better for people throughout Nebraska and beyond. Its education programs train more health professionals than any other institution in the state. Learn more at unmc.edu. <\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"margin: 0in 0in 10pt\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cheaper, quicker, more accurate test holds great promise Hendrik Viljoen, Ph.D., didn&#8217;t plan to tackle one of the world&#8217;s deadliest bacteria. He was, after all, an engineer, not a clinical researcher. &nbsp; But, Dr. Viljoen has developed new technologies that have the potential to diagnose tuberculosis (TB) in the developing world more quickly and more [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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-49032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","department-press-release"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>UNMC, UNL researchers team in developing improved diagnostic test for TB<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Cheaper, quicker, more accurate test holds great promise Hendrik Viljoen, Ph.D., didn&#039;t plan to tackle one of the world&#039;s deadliest bacteria. He was,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2010\/08\/10\/unmc-unl-researchers-team-in-developing-improved-diagnostic-test-for-tb\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UNMC, UNL researchers team in developing improved diagnostic test for TB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cheaper, quicker, more accurate test holds great promise Hendrik Viljoen, Ph.D., didn&#039;t plan to tackle one of the world&#039;s deadliest bacteria. 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