AUTOMETA
Medical research highlights the significant limitations of drug treatments: ineffectiveness in 30-60% of patients, and side effects in 30% of cases. To overcome these obstacles, it is crucial to better understand patients' state of health and their reactions to drugs, in order to move towards more effective personalized treatments.
This is now made possible by metabolomic analysis, a recent tool in molecular and medical biology. By examining metabolites, the small molecules involved in all the chemical reactions that take place in the body, it is possible to obtain an overview of an individual's physiological state in real time. However, metabolomics analysis requires a crucial sample preparation step, carried out by laboratory technicians, and these manual processes are prone to human error that can compromise the reliability of results.
The University of Freiburg and its partners are developing an innovative solution that promises to fundamentally transform this essential step: automated sample preparation on a microfluidic chip. This technology is based on the use of miniaturized devices capable of handling very small volumes of liquid (e.g. blood or cerebrospinal fluid). The principle is simple: the sample to be analyzed is automatically routed through a network of microchannels inside the chip, where various preparation steps are carried out automatically.
The project will benefit from the expertise of the Swiss partners in the field of metabolomic analysis and the extensive experience of the German partners in the preparation of microfluidic samples. Within the next three years, microfluidic chips currently under development should make it possible to significantly improve patient sample preparation for metabolomic analysis compared with current methods. In future this technology could be widely used, particularly in the cross-border region, for example by diagnostic laboratories or in university hospitals. This innovation represents an important step towards more accessible personalized medicine.
The University of Freiburg and the University of Basel are leading this initiative with Hahn-Schickard-Gesellschaft für angewandte Forschung e. V..