UNMC Scientists Train on New Device That Could Significantly
Decrease Time to Identify Infectious Disease Bacteria
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| Peter Iwen, Ph.D., assistant professor, pathology and microbiology
and associate director of the Nebraska Public Health Laboratory at UNMC, demonstrates how the Roche Molecular Biochemical LightCycler works. A lab sample is placed in the black cylinder which works with a computer program that runs and analyzes test results. |
If you work in a laboratory and saw the movie "Jurassic Park," you
probably noticed the process Hollywood scientists used to extract and duplicate
dinosaur DNA from mosquitoes preserved in amber. The process, called polymerase
chain reaction, or PCR for short, allows scientists to substantially increase
the amount of DNA in a laboratory sample in order to perform tests on it.
Typically, the PCR process takes about three hours with days sometimes required
to analyze the product. But biotechnology – the application of biology
and engineering – is speeding that up to 35 to 40 minutes.
The Nebraska Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) at the University of Nebraska
Medical Center has received a new piece of equipment that ultimately could allow
pathologists and microbiologists to get results of their laboratory tests in
a fraction of the time it now takes.
Laboratory personnel have received training and are experimenting with
the Roche Molecular Biochemical LightCycler. Peter Iwen, Ph.D., assistant
professor, pathology and microbiology and associate director of the NPHL,
said the LightCycler could drastically cut the time it takes to identify
infectious disease agents, including those that may be used for biological
terrorism.
If you can cut the time down from detection to identification, then you could
start quarantine and treatment sooner and thats always a good thing, Dr. Iwen
said.
The laboratory is one of several dozen sites in the United States that have
the new equipment. It was acquired through a grant from the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention through the Nebraska Health and Human Services
System.
Dr. Iwen and other scientists around the country are currently developing protocols
for the LightCycler through the National Laboratory Response Network, in which
the NPHL participates. These protocols will ultimately be used to detect a variety
of pathogens causing infectious diseases, including bacteria such as the anthrax
and plague bacilli.
Though the technology is currently only used as a screening tool, backed
up by the classic way of growing bacteria on culture medium in a Petri
dish, the technology may ultimately make this process obsolete.
People dont want to wait four or more days to get results, Dr. Iwen said.
This technology could cut two or even four days off of what is now a three-
to five-day process.
The technology allows lab technologists to watch the test go through
each cycle on the computer screen as it happens.
The biggest advantage of the technology is its ability to rapidly do
PCR and ultimately identify the product all within one amplification, he
said.
We will continue to do the cultures in testing for suspected anthrax
bacillus exposure until we develop protocols and get more comfortable with
the technology, Dr. Iwen said.
The LightCycler costs about $60,000 and was purchased through federal
grant money, he said. Plans to purchase this instrument were in the works
before the mailed anthrax spore attacks.
Weve tried to get this equipment for the last several months but lack of
funding was an issue, Dr. Iwen said. This is an excellent investment for the
future. We need to be on the cutting edge in this area of science. This
is up there on the top rung of current technology.