Scientists at the University of Nottingham’s School of Pharmacy and Biosciences, in collaboration with colleagues in the Centre for Respiratory Research at Nottingham City Hospital in England have won a prestigious Da Vinci award for developing a new technique that can test for up to 5,000 different allergens from just one drop of blood.
Not only can it test up to 5,000 different food or inhalant allergens that could cause an allergic reaction in a patient, but the researchers are also hoping it could also be developed as a diagnostic tool for parasitic infections.
It works by adding tiny dots of allergen molecules to paper on a glass slide. A drop of the patient's blood is added before the slide is incubated with the cells causing the symptoms of allergy. Cellular activation can then be analyzed to discover which of the allergens are prompting the release of histamine and other chemicals indicative of allergic reaction in the patient's blood.
The Da Vinci award itself gives the researchers $15,000 to continue their studies – not a huge amount, but it is a significant step towards achieving the funding needed to continue the research and bring the results into the doctors’ office and hospital so that you or I may benefit from it.
Dr Franco Falcone, Associate Professor in The University of Nottingham's School of Pharmacy, said that he and his colleagues were thrilled to have won a Da Vinci award in the Breakthrough Technology category. The Da Vinci Awards are run through Loughborough University, England and recognize collaborative projects that lead to the potential commercialization of healthcare innovations to save lives and improve services to patients.
These scientists at the University of Nottingham are not only helping allergy sufferers with their groundbreaking research; Professor Ian Ellis in the University's School of Molecular Medical Sciences collaboration with colleagues at Nottingham Trent University and University Hospital Nottingham has led to the development of a breast cancer prognostic tool.
The tool classifies patients into groups according to their tumor biology, providing information about the patients' most probable survival outcome and guides clinicians in the most appropriate form of treatment and should reduce the incidence of over-treatment, thereby minimizing the harmful side-effects for patients.
The Da Vinci awards are bringing attention to these innovative and brilliant scientists and their research efforts, ensuring that patients will be able to benefit through the health industries.
For more information please visit www.davinci-net.org