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Nearly 100% of bacterial infections can now be identified in under 3 hours | A major breakthrough in the accuracy and speed at which often deadly pathogen infections can be identified and treated.


Scientists have made a major breakthrough in the accuracy and speed at which often deadly pathogen infections can be identified and treated. This is time that, in many cases, is critical to saving a patient's life.

Scientists at the Ulsan National Institute of Science & Technology (UNIST) in South Korea have unveiled their novel diagnostic technique known as fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), using artificial polymers – peptide nucleic acid (PNA) – that act as probes to bind to different genetic sequences within bacteria. We developed a novel set of peptide nucleic acid (PNA)-based FISH probes with optimal target specificity by analyzing the variations in 16S ribosomal RNA sequence across all bacterial species." In the lab, FISH detected seven species of bacteria that commonly infect humans – Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus mirabilis,Bacillus subtilis, Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus.

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