Novel Process to Detect Proteins Could Simplify Kidney Disease Detection, Washington University in St. Louis Study

Detecting whether a patient will have acute kidney injury could become as simple as dipping a paper test strip printed with gold nanorods into a urine sample, a team of Washington University in St. Louis researchers has found.

Srikanth Singamaneni, PhD, assistant professor of engineering, along with Evan Kharasch, MD, PhD, and Jerry Morrissey, PhD, at Washington University School of Medicine, have developed a biomedical sensor using gold nanorods designed to detect the elevation of the protein neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), a promising biomarker for acute kidney injury, in urine. Biomarkers are typically small molecules or proteins in the body whose concentration changes in response to disease or therapy.

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