Detecting Exposure to Specific Pathogens and Agents

SLU ID 19-007 | Immune Receptor Analysis as Diagnostic Assay

Background

The most common method of assessing immunological history is by measuring levels of target-specific antibodies collected from blood or serum, often using an enzyme-linked immunodeficient assay (ELISA) or a T cell response assay. This approach has several limitations. Distinguishing between highly related pathogens is often not possible. The number tests and amount of re-testing is limited by the physical amount of sample collected. Computational methods are currently time and resource intensive.

Overview

Researchers at Saint Louis University have developed a digital diagnostic method to assess the immunological history of samples. The method addresses many of the limitations of current approaches based on ELISA or T-cell response assays.

Benefits

The potential benefits of this technology include:

• Increase ability to distinguish between pathogens

• Increase the stability of samples

• Increase the shelf-life of samples

• Increase the number of tests that can be performed on a single sample

• Minimize the time required to test a sample

• Minimize the resources required to test a sample

• Minimize the complexity of testing samples

Applications

Potential applications of this technology include:

• Early-stage diagnostics for exposure to pathogens and agents

• Developing diagnostic assays for emerging diseases

Opportunity

Saint Louis University is seeking partners to further develop and commercialize this technology.