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Yet-Another_Burner t1_iqmesed wrote

If I were in this field I’d be real careful making any claims about “a drop of blood”

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archimedesrex t1_iqmhhlp wrote

For real. Everything I've heard from experts in field is that a drop of blood is just too small of a sample size. Too easy not have any trace of pathogen simply because your drop was the wrong drop.

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Estesz t1_iqpp72y wrote

I'm so excited.

Either we get cool new diagnostics or a dozen of unsettling documentaries and filmings.

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Kaeny t1_iqo3fa0 wrote

Just googled and the biggest physically possible drop of water is 9mm in diameter.

I wonder how small “less than a drop of blood” is

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jpollack40 t1_iqoetos wrote

I'm not familiar with this field at all, but I would hazard a guess that this statement is more a way to communicate how sensitive this equipment is as opposed to the workflow to use it. I'm sure whatever that workflow is it accounts for the minimum volume of blood necessary to achieve the most accurate results. That wouldn't necessarily change the fact that all the equipment needs is one drop of the "right" blood that includes the material to detect a tumor.

The cynic side of me would say phrasing like that is more geared towards potential investors than anything. Because I don't disagree that this may be technically correct but at the very least hyperbolic if not misleading.

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Sparkybear t1_iqomare wrote

Phrasing like this is straight out of Elizabeth Holmes' Theranos playbook.

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[deleted] t1_iqmcq3v wrote

[removed]

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JimJalinsky t1_iqmu9oe wrote

This isn’t making the claim that it can run every blood test known to man.

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Neither-Cup564 t1_iqp3t4b wrote

Right, the issue wasn’t that you couldnt test something with a drop of blood it was that the amount of blood needed to test all of those things and in such a short time wasn’t and isn’t possible.

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Bloodsword83 t1_iqq4i1j wrote

For real. The last time I went and had my blood tests done, they pulled like six vials of blood.

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locoghoul t1_iqmv6wc wrote

Finally a good source with novel research, not that psy media outlet crap

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LabTeq t1_iqneq89 wrote

Insurance wont cover it

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trextra t1_iqnd4f7 wrote

I’d like to see this experiment replicated by another independent lab group.

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Coreadrin t1_iqocsd9 wrote

Yes, there's a disgusting 'reproducibility crisis' going on in science with all these guvbucks flying around the last few decades. It's almost 100% necessary before you believe anything these days.

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trextra t1_iqopktr wrote

Also, this is a press release, not the actual journal article. I’ll also withhold judgment until I can read that.

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phatbody t1_iqplu0x wrote

fool me, can't get fooled again.

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RarewareUsedToBeGood t1_iqmx9xh wrote

This would be interesting to apply a DEEP learning molecular fingerprint for lots of neurologic diseases that have some type of mix of proteins passing the blood brain barrier.

And then extrapolating from that, I wonder how many other applications of diagnosis machine learning can assist with just looking at combos of proteins/nucleic acids/etc. in the periphery.

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Rice-A-Romney t1_iqmy8wr wrote

The link doesn't work for me, is this a microfluidic system? It makes so much sense to use microfluidic platforms for diagnostic medicine, it's a shame that Theranos has really tainted that avenue of research. Hopefully good old fashioned peer reviewed work can slowly win this back into people's good graces.

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Mad_Aeric t1_iqq6nhg wrote

Oh boy, here we go again.

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