Courtesy of PerkinElmer
Boston-based PerkinElmer Life and Analytical Sciences has just received clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration for the company's NeoGram tandem mass spectrometry screening kit to be used in metabolic testing of newborn infants
The system measures the concentrations of amino acids and carnitines (molecules associated with the transport of fatty acids across mitochondrial membranes) in the blood of newborns. Abnormal levels of these molecules are implicated in various potentially fatal metabolic disorders, such as phenylketonuria.
"Until now, newborn screening was designed such that you'd have to take the dried blood sample and run one test on it," says Scott Palubiac, vice president of sales for newborn screening at PerkinElmer. "Now, we can take one sample and derive many results in a short space of time."
Each run takes two minutes to complete, and 40 determinations can be obtained from a single injection, says Blas ...
