Cancer analyses at turbo speed
Ten times more efficient use of the space on the plates used for cell diagnostics will provide much faster readouts of smear tests and more results. Analyses which previously took weeks can now be done in a few days. This is what a KTH doctoral student says who has developed the solution which can be of great help for treating cancer and who is also tipped to have a brilliant commercial tomorrow.
“Previously the plates had unnecessary large holes in them, in particular when individual cells were studied. On the same area which previously accommodated 96 holes, we now have more than 1,000 holes,” says Sara Lindström, doctoral student in nano biotechnology at KTH and the individual who has developed the so-called microwell plate.
The new, more effective microwell plate with lots of very very small holes will be of great benefit for cancer diagnostics as it makes possible a more efficient pharmaceutical treatment of, for example, leukaemia patients. And, it is extremely fast.
“In my thesis, I describe how you can analyse 700,000 substances in less than two days, which is very fast. The equivalent in today’s standard analyses would most likely take weeks, rather than days,” says Sara Lindström.
On top of this, there are advantages with several tests on one plate because there are fewer plates to deal with in total. The plates, it is predicted, will therefore provide a bright future with regard to diagnostics, pharmaceutical development and cell analysis.
“It is difficult to estimate an exact amount, but it will most likely be of gigantic commercial value because the area of use is so extensive,” she says.
She adds that in her estimation, the available market for diagnostics and research as of today is somewhere in the region of SEK 100 million in Sweden alone, and that Sweden’s share of the global market is around 1%. That is why Sara Lindström together with her acclaimed and successful research colleague Helene Andersson-Svahn have launched the biotech company Picovitro.
“It looks promising,” says Sara Lindström.
Sara Lindström is a civil engineer and since 2006 has been a doctoral student in the group for nano biotechnology at KTH. The thesis which forms the basis of the microwell plate is called “Microwell tools for the analysis of individual cells” and will be defended at KTH on 11 December.
For more information, contact Sara Lindström at sara@biotech.kth.se or ring 0733 - 397 107.
Peter Larsson