Team:USTC/Implementation

Proposed implementation

        In this part, we want to describe our future use of our project in real word.

        First of all, we recommend volunteers who give blood selflessly to test. After collecting the volunteers’ blood samples, they can be used for physical examination. Our scheme can add to the physical examination project to help the volunteers to check their bodies and give them feedback. In this way, we can also test the stability of our products in enough people.

       When the stability is basically guaranteed, we recommend it for middle-aged or elderly people. This indicator can be added to the regular physical examination of the hospital. For some people who don't like regular physical examination, we can transfer our products to the community for use, so that it can be popularized to more people.

        In addition, when enough data are collected, we can deliver the data to neurobiologists for analysis to test whether the tau mechanism is correct, which will undoubtedly help people better understand the mechanism of AD. We have contacted some hospitals for follow-up research.

        Our method is quite simple to use: collect blood samples, add them to the reaction tank (our designed hardware), press start key and wait for the results. The built-in software will output the tau protein concentration of the tested person. The whole process takes about 20 minutes, which is very simple and fast. Even an ordinary nurse without biological expertise can complete the work as long as she can draw blood.

        What's more exciting is that we can replace different aptamer-protein groups to detect more biomarkers of diseases. We can use hardware and software reagents as complete products for hospitals and apply for patents. We can change aptamers and proteins without changing hardware, which can also save costs.

        In the process of implementation, we should first consider the ethical issue, that is, whether the use of blood requires the consent of the provider. We need to sign a letter of commitment or get permission from the hospital. Secondly, we need to consider the safety issue, that is, the biological pollution of the blood sample itself. Finally, we have to pay attention to the privacy of blood providers. If we need to use patient data, we will only retain information with obvious non personal characteristics such as age and gender. The accuracy of our method has not yet reached the real concentration of some proteins, so it is necessary to concentrate the samples before using this method. But we believe that it will reach a very accurate level when it is really used in the hospital.