Nanotech diagnostic can indicate cancer or thrombotic risk in one drop of blood

A team of international researchers led by Professor Martin Hegner, Investigator in CRANN and Trinity's School of Physics, have developed an automated diagnostic platform that can quantify bleeding – and thrombotic risks – in a single drop of blood, within seconds. The researchers exploited micro-resonators for real-time measurements of the evolving strength of the blood plasma clot. Along with the clinically measured clotting time, other insightful parameters, from specific factor deficiency to global coagulation parameters (used to assess fibrinolysis), can also be extracted. These technical developments introduce a miniaturized global hemostasis assay with the capability of fine-tuning factor replacement – or anti-coagulation therapies (left image, below).