UCLA microtechnique news reports on fluid analysis for cancer growth

Microtechnique news from the University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA) reports the development of a means of detecting signals of cancer growth in fluid analysis.

The technique is believed to be the first to combine two disciplines - microfluidics and radioactive imaging - according to co-investigator and professor of molecular and medical pharmacology Arion Chatziioannou.

"We are not aware of other work demonstrating solid-state integrated radioactive imaging from a microfluidic platform," the professor says.

The device is able to produce feature-rich results - such as stem cell analysis of leukaemia - based on a relatively narrow tissue sample, the scientists add.

Previous microtechnique news from UCLA revealed the development of a technique to analyse video footage of cells in motion.

By automatically tracking movement from one frame to the next, the process represented an efficiency gain of 100,000 times compared with manual human assessment of shifts in cell position, the researchers said.