An RNA aptamer is provided with a sequence of linkage order of UAUUAGGACCA.

A system for determining a concentration of hemoglobin A1C includes a first lateral flow test strip, the first lateral flow test strip providing for a percent of HbA1C concentration; a second lateral flow test strip, the second lateral flow test strip providing for the total amount of hemoglobin; an antibody-microparticle stripe on each of the first and second lateral flow test strips; a conjugate stripe on each of the first and second lateral flow test strips; and a sample treatment buffer. The sample treatment buffer is strongly denaturing, and antibodies in the antibody-microparticle strip are covalently bound to microparticles.

A sample collection device for a fluid sample includes: a body including a capillary channel having a first end and a second end, wherein the first end is adapted to draw the fluid into the channel by capillary action; an air vent located in the vicinity of the second end and in fluid communication with the capillary channel; a barrier positioned within the capillary channel to prevent flow of the fluid by capillary action thereacross; and features on opposing sides of the body to form an axis of rotation, which is substantially perpendicular to the overall direction of the capillary channel from the first end to the second end. In a preferred embodiment, the sample collection device is adapted to rotate about the axis of rotation within a cartridge having a sample manipulation device to bring the first end into position with the sample manipulation device.

The current invention relates to cell-cell interaction and in particular to cellular avidity. Provided are improved means and methods to study cell-cell interaction and characterizing cellular avidity, in particular from heterogeneous cell populations. Means and methods are provided which allows for the screening and identification of cells, carrying defined receptors while at the same time determining cellular avidity. This way, highly advantages methods can be provided that allow efficient screening of libraries or heterogeneous cell population for identifying for example receptors of interest.

A method for the optical evaluation of the level of hemolysis in a blood sample, said method comprising the steps of prearranging a device 100 comprising a light emitter, at least two photodetectors and a control unit arranged to operate the light emitter and to receive data by the photodetectors. The method then comprises a step of emitting, by the light emitter, of an inspection electromagnetic radiation towards the blood sample, said inspection electromagnetic radiation comprising a plurality of inspection electromagnetic waves having respective wavelengths .sub.E. A step follows of receiving, by the photodetectors, a return electromagnetic radiation coming from the blood sample, said return electromagnetic radiation comprising a plurality of return electromagnetic waves having respective wavelengths .sub.R.

The present invention relates to a system for measuring the hemoglobin concentration in whole blood, wherein the system comprises: a light-radiating unit including a light source that emits two types of incident light having different wavelengths; a diffusion unit which diffuses the incident light emitted by the light-radiating unit; a cuvette-holding unit which is formed so as to hold a cuvette including a blood sample; a detection unit which detects each absorbance of the two types of incident light having different wavelengths; a processing unit which determines the hemoglobin concentration in the blood by processing the measured absorbance result; and a control unit which regulates the two types of incident light having different wavelengths in order to repeatedly/sequentially radiate same. Although the system for measuring hemoglobin in whole blood of the present invention uses a small amount of whole blood, it is possible to measure the total hemoglobin concentration in an accurate and reliable manner. The system of the present invention aligns the paths of two types of incident light having different wavelengths passing through a microcuvette by using a diffuser plate so as to easily align a light source and increase the reliability of the results. Also, the system of the present invention uses two wavelengths so as to rapidly and accurately measure the total amount of hemoglobin, including oxidized and reduced hemoglobin.

A method of screening or testing a sample is disclosed that comprises ionising a native human hemoglobin sample to generate parent or precursor ions, subjecting the parent or precursor ions to Electron Transfer Dissociation fragmentation so as to generate a plurality of fragment ions, mass analysing the fragment ions and determining whether or not the fragment ions include fragment ions which are indicative of a variant of hemoglobin.

In one aspect, the inventive concepts disclosed herein are directed to a chromatographic assay device for detecting the presence of free hemoglobin in a whole blood sample. The device comprising a chromatographic detection pad with a sample application site and a detection side. The chromatographic detection pad defines a path for capillary fluid flow. The chromatographic detection pad has a pore size. The sample application site on the chromatographic detection pad is for application of a portion of the whole blood sample. The detection site on the chromatographic detection pad is spaced apart from the application site and is downstream of the sample application site. The chromatographic detection pad is devoid of a compound located downstream of the application site that is reactive to the whole blood sample.

A method and apparatus for determining hemoglobin concentration is provided. A method aspect includes the steps of: a) depositing an unlysed, substantially undiluted blood sample into an analysis chamber adapted to quiescently hold the sample for analysis; b) imaging the sample in a region of the analysis chamber where the height of the chamber is no more than about twenty microns (20) or no less than about two microns (2), to produce image signals representative of the optical density of the imaged region; c) determining a sample representative optical density value using the image signals representative of the optical density of the imaged region; and d) determining the hemoglobin concentration of the sample using the sample representative optical density value.

A blood analyzing device (100) comprises a light source (120) arranged to generate light (40) of a wavelength at which a Hb species in a hemolyzed blood sample (30) has absorbance. A detector system (130) is arranged to detect output light (50) from the sample (30) and generate a Hb signal representative of an amount of the Hb species in the sample (30) and a parasite signal representative of an amount of malaria parasites in the sample (30). A processor (140) generates a red blood cell value based on the Hb signal and generates a parasitemia value based on the parasite signal and the red blood cell value. A display (160) displays the parasitemia value representing a percentage of the red blood cells that are infected by malaria parasites.