An Aug. 1 afternoon symposium at the 69th AACC Annual Scientific Meeting and Clinical Lab Expo, Not Out for Blood: Clinical Evaluations of Emerging Samples, Sensors, and Devices (33219), will feature the new and novel in diagnostic strategies.
Technological and scientific advances in diagnostics have created exciting new opportunities in noninvasive sampling, wearable devices, and implantable sensors, Gerard Cangelosi, PhD, a professor in the department of environmental and occupational health sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, and the session’s moderator, told CLN Stat. “These technologies, when coupled with mobile connectivity, have the potential to expand access to real-time, near-patient clinical testing,” Cangelosi said. In deciding what topics to discuss, he and his fellow presenters chose technologies that have shown promise in early studies, either in the clinic or with human volunteers.
Joseph Wang, DSc, MSc, chair of nanoengineering at the University of California San Diego will talk about wearable electrochemical sensors, while Sunitha Nagrath MS, PhD, associate professor of chemical engineering at the University of Michigan, will give a talk on clinical evaluations of liquid biopsies.
Michael Strano, PhD, the Carbon P. Dubbs professor of chemical engineering of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will present some exciting results on single-walled carbon nanotube biosensors.
Two other discussions will explore the role of diagnostics in global health. Cangelosi’s own presentation will focus on noninvasive oral swab sampling for tuberculosis diagnosis. Samiksha Nayak, BS, MS, a graduate biomedical engineering student at Columbia University, plans to speak on field evaluations of network-connected point-of-care infectious disease diagnostics.
Advancing technologies pose a number of challenges for their developers and for the labs that evaluate them. “By far the most significant question is how to evaluate diagnostic strategies that utilize novel sample types, or novel analytical strategies, or continuous/real-time outputs,” Cangelosi said. “A wearable sensor that generates near-continuous information or a noninvasive sampling approach that enables serial repeat testing will not always offer the same results as cross-sectional ‘snapshot’ methods such as tumor biopsies.”
Wearable sensors and noninvasive sampling amount to continuous surveillance tapes and one-time still photos respectively—factors that make it difficult to evaluate new methods relative to predicate methods. This is why the session’s presenters chose to highlight ideas and advances that have already been through clinical evaluation and/or field trials in human subjects, Cangelosi explained.
The session takes place from 2:30–5 p.m. and is worth 2.5 CE hours. Catch the latest on emerging diagnostics and other sessions on cutting edge technologies at the 69th AACC Annual Scientific Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo, July 30–Aug. 3 in San Diego.