DIANA enables simple and reliable on-site diagnostics

This means that individual health data can be easily collected and analysed in mini-labs - sometimes by the patients themselves. The focus is initially on human medical applications, but there is also a need for fast and reliable diagnostics in care, sport and veterinary medicine.

DIANA stands for diagnostics and sustainability and currently unites around 80 partners, including medium-sized companies, research institutions and supporters from education and society. Launched in 2022 as an alliance, the partners founded the association »DIANA-Point-of-Care-Technologie-Mitteldeutschland e.V.« last December. The alliance and association are managed by the Fraunhofer Institutes IWU and IZI as well as SensLab GmbH. The VEMASinnovativ network is an important partner for the continuous further development of DIANA.

More sustainability in medicine; innovative production technology

Sustainability is not just a name for DIANA. The diagnostic solutions to be developed should fulfil the requirements of a circular economy and, unlike COVID-19 rapid tests, for example, used material should be reusable, reprocessable or at least recyclable. This places high demands not only on the choice of material; product design and manufacturing processes must allow for later (partial) disassembly. Production technology therefore has a key role to play; it must be able to manufacture recyclable microsystems in large quantities, with the highest precision and at affordable prices. This is where the Fraunhofer IWU comes into play with its comprehensive expertise in production engineering and microfabrication technologies. The team led by Udo Eckert and Eric Gärtner is committed to realising the requirements of diagnostics in the best possible way through innovations in production technology - together with various manufacturing companies that VEMASinnovativ is bringing to DIANA.

Example blood diagnostics: project »PlasmaSepPOC«

Biomarkers are substances in the human body that can provide early indications of potential health problems. Two such biomarkers are CRP and lactate. CRP, a protein produced by the liver, rises when the body is fighting inflammation. A high CRP level in the blood can indicate infections or inflammation and is therefore an important indicator. Lactate is a salt of lactic acid that is increasingly produced during physical exertion or lack of oxygen. An increase in the lactate level in the blood can indicate excessive exertion during sport or even medical emergencies.

The PlasmaSepPOC project is about the separation of blood plasma from whole blood samples for the detection of biomarkers – biomarkers can be easily detected in blood plasma. However, current methods for obtaining plasma from whole blood are often time-consuming, expensive and not suitable for mass production in point-of-care systems. PlasmaSepPOC combines expertise from the disciplines of microfluidics, materials technology and diagnostic technology for a future POC solution. The SensLab team is developing a method based on capillary force to detect CRP in the blood, for example. This method can be used to measure tiny amounts of a specific substance in a sample. Specialists at the Fraunhofer IZI are focussing on the design of the microfluidic chips. These chips are tiny, specially designed components that are used to process the blood and perform the plasma separation in the best possible way. In the project, the Fraunhofer IWU is evaluating various manufacturing technologies that can be used to produce very fine filter structures of just a few micrometres in size.

Source: https://nachrichten.idw-online.de/2024/03/19/diana-ermoeglicht-einfache-und-zuverlaessige-vor-ort-diagnostik