Biotechnology specialistPixelbiohas developed a novel 3D printed molecular biochip with the potential to ramp-up the pace of clinical genetic testing.
利用一个Formlabs3D打印机和黑色树脂，Pixelbio能够创建新的“ Hulufish”传感设备，能够使用多色探针同时检测几个不同的基因代码。这样一来，该公司设法降低了其成本和交货时间，同时生产了一种灵活的临床工具，现在可以帮助加速癌症诊断以及其他药物和疫苗的研发。
“Thanks to the Form 3’s high precision and print speed, we are able to use it to print tubes smaller than 1 mm into a tiny space,” said Sheng Liu, Development Director at Pixelbio. “We also found that once the design was right, we could produce the part we needed quickly and on a large scale, which would have been very expensive per unit and not necessarily suitable for our needs [with prior technologies].”
利用“鱼”的潜力
首次在1960年代引入的原位杂交已成为鉴定特定核酸，DNA和RNA在组织，细胞和染色体中的特定核酸，DNA和RNA的位置的常见方法。通常，该技术涉及化学或放射性探针的使用，通常用于检测细胞学标本中的癌细胞，并有效地使临床医生能够实现早期疾病的预后和治疗。
Building on this approach, such scientists are now increasingly turning to Fluorescence in situ hybridization or ‘FISH’ techniques, through which they attach colored markers to certain genes to lend them greater microscope visibility, but even though the method enables single molecular detection, it remains limited to identifying one gene at a time.
为了解决这个问题，Pixelbio开发了“ Hulufish”，这是一种灵活的3D印刷生物芯片，可让临床医生同时跟踪更多的基因。该公司被作为“第一个个性化的多重Smfish解决方案”销售，有效地提供了制作芯片作为服务的产品，该服务使客户可以从精选的基因选择中迅速订购并接收相应的分子设备进行测试。
Advanced DNA-detecting biochips
使用当前具有0.8-1.2 mm通道的生物芯片，可以通过识别激光器的基因来评估样品，但是通常需要根据所测试的液体的构成来调整此类设备。更重要的是，鉴于探针具有多种形状和大小，生物芯片的规格总是在变化，因此需要一个原型制作过程，可能需要几个月才能正确。
By contrast, since adopting Formlabs’ technology, Pixelbio has been able to create the HuluFISH in-house, reducing its related production costs and lead times. Thanks to its inherent low-opacity, the Black Resin has also proven ideal for chip manufacturing, and the firm is now using the material to expedite the R&D of its next generation of products.
Elsewhere in its lab, Pixelbio has also deployed itsForm 3along with Formlabs’ Clear Resin to produce precision-fit closures that protect the liquid inlets of its chips, and moving forwards, it now intends to continue 3D printing the HuluFISH at its Hamburg factory, while developing unique microarray chips at its R&D complex in Heidelberg.
就Hulufish的未来潜力而言，其内置探针的灵活性可能使其成为识别Covid-19的不同菌株，分析其进展并推进增强疫苗的发展的理想选择。考虑到这一点，Pixelbio正在参加NIH的诊断快速加速(RADxSM) initiative, through which it aims to develop improved COVID-testing technologies.
“[HuluFISH] will make the diagnosis of tumors or diseases easy and precise, and will change the way we diagnose and treat diseases in the long run,” concluded Liu. “We are confident that our probe can accelerate the development of drugs and vaccines by enabling the detection of SARS-CoV-2 and its receptor ACE2 mRNA at the single-cell molecule level.”
Covid-19测试中的3D打印
自从大流行去年的全球爆发以来，Covid-19的测试就开始了，但这并没有停止科学家尝试优化该过程的新方法。在瓦格宁根大学，研究人员开发了基于咖啡胶囊的3D印刷Covid-19可以每只小于20便士生产。
同样，一个团队在Carnegie Mellon University（CMU）3D printed a rapid COVID-19 sensorin September 2020 that’s capable of detecting antibodies in around 10 seconds. Made withOptomec的该设备是专门设计用于重复使用的专利气溶胶喷气打印（AJP）技术的，可以将其部署多次部署并加快测试过程。
在其他地方，科学家Weizmann Institute of Science有3D打印了“电子鼻子”配件这使其能够在受感染的个体中“嗅探” covid-19。该团队使用添加剂制造的采样阀，能够安全地训练“ ense”，以识别其本地以色列的测试中心的疾病迹象。
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Featured image shows color-labelled molecules identified using Pixelbio’s 3D printed chip. Image via Formlabs.
