Roche has extended its serology panel to include a new generation Elecsys anti-HCV II, optimising workflows, saving costs and providing accurate, rapid results.
With an estimated 216,000 individuals chronically infected in the UK alone, hepatitis C (HCV) remains a major public health problem, and HCV-related end stage liver disease and mortality continue to increase. It is thus necessary to sustain and enhance efforts to raise awareness, prevent new infections, increase diagnosis, and treat more individuals with infection. Due to the high rate of asymptomatic infections, clinical diagnosis of hepatitis C is difficult and screening assays are of major importance.This new assay can play an effective part in this strategy, as it is used to demonstrate the presence of antibodies against HCV during acute and chronic stages of disease, and after a passed infection. A hundred percent clinical sensitivity is provided for all known genotypes, leading to early detection of infection and patient-oriented decision making. With high specificity as demonstrated in blood donors (99.84%) and samples from clinical routine, pregnant women and dialysis patients, use of this assay increases laboratory testing efficiencies. To optimise workflows and provide operational cost savings, the ready-to-use liquid reagents have a long onboard stability of 31 days on all the company’s immunoassay platforms. The new assay complements the Roche serology assay menu that includes assays for Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, HIV, TORCH, Herpes, Syphilis and other infectious diseases.
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Combining fluorescence and brightfield analysis capabilities in a single platform, with precision cell modelling, Tissue IA 2.0 offers a superior solution for IHC biomarker quantification. A major challenge in research today is retrieval of quantitative, reproducible data from tissue-based IHC studies. This platform provides expert tools for researchers to extract the most from their studies. Powerful colour separation and multi-marker colocalisation functionality provides advanced insight and unbiased measurement of multiple antigen immunostaining in brightfield or fluorescent samples. Sophisticated cell modelling accurately detects and quantifies differential expression of staining in cellular compartments, providing detailed insight into cytoplasmic, membrane and nuclear biomarker localisation. The advanced dual staining capabilities enable cell cohorts at the molecular level to be identified. One marker can identify a population of interest and expression of a second can be quantified, providing exceptional analysis performance and greater understanding of slides. With high throughput batch analysis capacity, the platform will process whole slides, regions of interest or tissue microarray cores, and automatically integrate analysis results with a user’s slides.
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The MDF-U76V ultra-low freezer combines improved cooling performance with outstanding energy efficiency. The advantages include greater security for precious research or clinical samples, as well as significantly lower running costs and added environmental benefits. This latest -86ºC VIP upright freezer has been specifically designed to meet the growing demand for energy savings, without in any way compromising freezer performance. In fact, cooling efficiency, insulation characteristics and door-open recovery times have all been enhanced via a capillary tube heat exchanger, next-generation VIP PLUS insulation, and the Cool Safe compressor. As a result, greater temperature uniformity throughout the freezer and faster temperature pull-down contribute to industry-leading sample security. The advanced new capillary tube heat exchanger significantly increases the overall efficiency of the freezer. By optimising the available heat exchange areas, system reliability is also increased and energy consumption is cut. In addition to helping minimise energy use, the high performance patented vacuum panels together with high-density foam insulation enable the freezers to provide up to 30 per cent more storage capacity than a conventionally insulated freezer, saving valuable lab space. An optional water-cooled condenser is also available. This enables laboratories with a chilled re-circulating water system to reduce the requirement for air conditioning within the freezer facility, reuse heat energy elsewhere and achieve even greater savings.
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Dickkopf-1 is an inhibitor of the Wnt/beta-catenin signal pathway, which has been implicated in the development of several types of cancers. It has been suggested that Dkk-1 could be a useful serum biomarker for screening against a variety of cancers, and that anti-Dkk-1 antibodies are potential tools for diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Dkk-1 is particularly expressed in lung cancer cells; an increasing concentration of Dkk-1 is significantly associated with tumour progression and decreased survival in patients with lung cancer. Determination of both Dkk-1 and NSE levels can significantly increase sensitivity of small cell lung cancer diagnostics where a severe lack of an optimal diagnostic marker is widely reported. The use of Dkk-1 and cytokeratin 19 fragment also increased the sensitivity of detection of non-small cell lung cancer. High serum levels of Dkk-1 were found in patients with cancers of the oesophagus, pancreas, stomach, liver, bile duct, breast and cervix. Dkk-1 level increases early in prostate cancer development and in a stepwise manner in multistep hepatocarcinogenesis. A recently published study indicated that increased serum level and protein expression of Dkk-1 can be a marker and predictor of poor prognosis in patients with gastric cancer. A new DKK-1 ELISA kit has enhanced Biovendor’s cancer diagnostic test portfolio. The superior assay sensitivity is characterised by a LOD of 10 pg/mL.
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