Fast help for the little ones
Translation of clinical markers for oxygen deficiency in newborns into a new diagnostic tool to prevent early childhood brain damage and guide individualised therapy
In many disease situations, rapid and reliable diagnosis is crucial for the patient's health. One example is oxygen deficiency in newborns at birth (perinatal asphyxia), which can have serious health consequences. Therapeutic cooling could be used to effectively treat newborns, provided the oxygen deficiency and resulting tissue damage are detected in time, within six hours.
In the joint project AsphyxDx, the project partners are developing a novel rapid test for the early detection of perinatal asphyxia. This will be designed as a "point-of-care" capable test system. This means that the test can be performed quickly and easily directly at the patient's bedside; time-consuming and expensive laboratory diagnostics are no longer required.
The technological basis of the novel test system are so-called nanopores. Embedded in an electrically insulating membrane, they serve as a lock and enable the detection and quantification of metabolic products at the molecular level. The measurement principle is based on changes in conductivity, which depends on whether the pores are open or closed. In order to now reliably detect specific disease-related molecules (so-called biomarkers), the nanopores are given a "gatekeeper" of precisely manufactured DNA structures. If the biomarker is present in the sample, it binds to the DNA structure, the pore opens and a current flow can be measured.
