Metabolic diagnoses in a minute?

Monday, March 7, 2016

Imagine the day when all it takes to diagnose ketosis or metabolic disease in your dairy cow is a few minutes, a drop of blood, a specially engineered test strip and a handheld device (similar to those used in blood-glucose meters) to read the strip's chemical reaction.

The challenge of filling multiple vials of blood from a reluctant animal? Gone. No waiting for the lab. Cost: a loonie or two.

Sure, it sounds like science fiction. But at the University of Guelph's BioNano Laboratory, "when" is the question, not "if," for engineering professor Suresh Neethirajan. Over the past 20 months, Neethirajan has created technology to react to biochemical markers that signal ketosis, a metabolic disorder, and metabolic disease in cattle.

The strip reader "is like a handheld smart phone" made of plastic and housing micro-controllers, electronics and a LCD screen, he says. The strip is made of plastic and carbon-based graphene oxide sensitized to detect the biomarkers.

The patented technology will undergo field trials in spring and commercialization looks promising, says David Hobson, manager, technology transfer in the university's Catalyst Centre. He estimates a one- to three-year journey from prototype to market.

Back at the lab, Neethirajan is hard at work on a similar device to detect infections such as Johne's disease in cattle, avian influenza in poultry or PRRS (porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome) in pigs.

Markers for pathogens are trickier to manage than biochemical ones, he says. "Hopefully in a about a year and a few months we will file another patent." BF