The pandemonium following the detonation of a “dirty bomb” may be diminished by the work of Duke researchers.
The U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority awarded Dr. John Chute, associate professor of medicine in the cellular therapy division, a $3.7 million grant for the development of a diagnostic tool that can rapidly determine an individual’s level of exposure to radiation.
“There is substantial concern that radiological or nuclear materials may be used in the U.S. to cause harm, perhaps by terrorists,” Chute said. “If that were to happen in a city, there are likely to be thousands or tens of thousands of people who are exposed or worried that they’ve been exposed [to radiation], so the rapid triage of people through some sort of medical evaluation will be critical to the management [of the situation].”
The tool will use a discovery recently made by a team led by Chute. The team found gene expression profiles in blood that can determine with 95 percent accuracy whether an individual has been exposed to radiation.
“The purpose of this grant is to translate our research findings, which showed that a subset of genes can predict radiation status, into the development of an assay that is rapid and applicable to a mass casualty scenario,” Chute said.
The prototype will use an individual’s blood sample to not only determine whether they have been exposed to radiation, but also to measure what level of radiation they have been exposed to. It will take the prototype, which is intended to be about the size of a desktop printer, approximately 30 minutes to deliver results.
Chute said that in a crisis situation, knowing a person’s level of radiation exposure will be necessary to determine whether that person needs immediate treatment or can be sent home.
He said the prototype will be tested in a large-scale clinical trial. In the trial, blood samples will be collected from individuals who have been exposed to radiation for cancer treatment to verify that the test is accurate in predicting radiation levels.
The project is scheduled to span five years, with up to $43.6 million in funding possible at the discretion of the federal government.
The prototype is in a class of molecular diagnostic platforms known as sample-to-answer, said Jim Healy, chief financial officer of DxTerity Diagnostics, a California company that will provide the detection technology for the gene signatures developed by Chute. The sample-to-answer system allows for complex biological samples, like blood, to be rapidly and directly analyzed.
In addition to collaborating with DxTerity Diagnostics, Chute will be working with the University of Arizona and Invetech Corporation, which will both focus on instrument development.
“[The device] is both technically extremely significant and will provide some technical breakthroughs, but also there’s nothing on the market of this kind so far,” said Andreas Knaack, director of biomedical instruments and devices at Invetech. “It will therefore in extreme situations provide solutions and diagnostic answers much faster and much cheaper than what is currently possible.”
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