Skip to main content
  • About ELGA
    • About ELGA
    • Ultrapure water
    • Purification Technologies
    • Impurities In Water
    • Guides & White Papers
    • Approved Partners
    • Sustainability
    • Reducing Clinical Risks
    • Careers
    • Events
    • HPLC in Pharma
    • HPLC Water Purity
  • Blog
    • Analytical Chemistry
    • Clinical & Pharma
    • Cool Science
    • Environment and sustainability
    • Life in the lab
    • Purelab product design
    • Science of the future
    • Water Purity
    • Water in the lab
  • Contact
  • Deutsch
  • Español
  • Français
  • Italiano
  • Português
  • 日本語
  • 中文
Home ELGA LabWater
  • Products
  • Applications
  • Case Studies
  • Support
  • Products
    • PURELAB
    • CENTRA
    • MEDICA
    • BIOPURE
    • ELGA Full Product Range
  • Applications
  • Case Studies
    • Unlocking the secrets of the Antarctic with the aid of ultrapure water
    • Abbott Diagnostics chooses ELGA MEDICA systems in South Asia
    • Ca’Foscari University- A New Method for Investigating Environmental Tracers in Ice
    • Ca’Foscari University- Investigating Contaminants in Antarctic Ice
    • DASA: The biggest medical diagnostics company in Brazil
    • ELGA helps immuneserology labs maximize uptime
    • Importance of ultrapure Type 1+ water for the development of generic medicines
    • MEDICA® Pro selected for Siemens ADVIA® analyzers at City General Hospital
    • Optimale Wasserqualität für mikrobiologische Forschung und Lehre
    • PURELAB® flex: an ideal training system for today's research method
    • Sichere Reinstwasserversorgung für präzise Produkttests
    • Zentrale Reinstwasser-Aufbereitung für Analyser
  • Support
    • Support & Services
    • Laboratory Planning
    • Register a Product
    • Register Your Product (USA & Canada Only)
  • Products
    • PURELAB
      • PURELAB Chorus 1 Complete
      • PURELAB® Chorus 1
      • PURELAB Chorus 2+
      • PURELAB® Chorus 2
      • PURELAB® Chorus 3
      • PURELAB® flex 1 & 2
      • PURELAB® flex 3 & 4
    • CENTRA
      • CENTRA® 60/120
      • CENTRA® RDS
      • CENTRA® R200
    • MEDICA
      • MEDICA® 7/15
      • MEDICA® EDI 15/30
      • MEDICA® Pro EDI 60/120
      • MEDICA® Pro-LPS
      • MEDICA® Pro-R and Pro-RE
      • MEDICA® R200
    • BIOPURE
      • BIOPURE 7/15
      • BIOPURE 60/120
      • BIOPURE 200/300/600
    • ELGA Full Product Range
      • PURELAB® Classic
  • Applications
  • Case Studies
    • Unlocking the secrets of the Antarctic with the aid of ultrapure water
    • Abbott Diagnostics chooses ELGA MEDICA systems in South Asia
    • Ca’Foscari University- A New Method for Investigating Environmental Tracers in Ice
    • Ca’Foscari University- Investigating Contaminants in Antarctic Ice
    • DASA: The biggest medical diagnostics company in Brazil
    • ELGA helps immuneserology labs maximize uptime
    • Importance of ultrapure Type 1+ water for the development of generic medicines
    • MEDICA® Pro selected for Siemens ADVIA® analyzers at City General Hospital
    • Optimale Wasserqualität für mikrobiologische Forschung und Lehre
    • PURELAB® flex: an ideal training system for today's research method
    • Sichere Reinstwasserversorgung für präzise Produkttests
    • Zentrale Reinstwasser-Aufbereitung für Analyser
  • Support
    • Support & Services
    • Laboratory Planning
    • Register a Product
    • Register Your Product (USA & Canada Only)
  • Deutsch
  • Español
  • Français
  • Italiano
  • Português
  • 日本語
  • 中文
  • Privacy policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Global Legal Compliance
  • Patents
  • Impressum

Let's talk about lab water

  • Categories
    • Analytical Chemistry
    • Clinical & Pharma
    • Cool Science
    • Environment & Sustainability
    • Future Science
    • Life in The Lab
    • PURELAB Product Design
    • Science of the Future
    • Water In The Lab
    • Water Purity
  • Authors
    • ELGA Editorial Team
    • Natasha Zarach
    • Dr Paul Whitehead
    • Dr Alison Halliday
    • John Walker
Clinical & Pharma
Water Purity

Purified Water In Clinical Diagnostic Testing

31 Jan 2020
- by ELGA Editorial Team

Pipette dripping ultrapure water sample into test tube

Detecting Cancer with a Drop of Pure Water

Did you know that we can now detect cancer using a drop of pure water? And that water quality can influence the development of novel medicines?

We at ELGA LabWater have been amazed to discover just how important pure water is in clinical diagnostics. It is not only playing an increasingly crucial role in the development of innovative clinical diagnostic tests, but it is also helping to advance the emerging field of precision medicine. Below we look at how harnessing the power of pure water in clinical diagnostics has the potential to transform patient health.

How is Purified Water Helping to Enhance Clinical Diagnostics?       

As laboratory water purification experts, here at ELGA LabWater, we are excited by the increasing number of innovative clinical diagnostic technologies that are harnessing the properties of purified water. For example, pure water is a critical aspect of a novel interoperative technology for cancer surgery, called the MasSpec Pen. (1) 

Innovative Clinical Diagnostic Testing Technologies

This recently developed handheld, disposable ionization device releases a discrete droplet of pure water onto suspected cancer tissue. The molecular content of the water droplet is then analyzed by a connected mass spectrometer to determine if the biomolecular profile matches that of cancerous tissue. 

Most significantly, the results are generated within just ten seconds, allowing surgeons to identify accurately the tumor’s boundaries in real-time; that is, which is the cancerous tissue to remove and which is the healthy tissue to leave behind. This improves on previous methods that are time-consuming and labor-intensive (e.g. imaging, cryo-preservation, and microscopic analysis), helping to improve the outcome for patients by reducing the time they spend on the operating table and minimizing the need for follow-up procedures.

A Drop of Pure Water is Critical in Clinical Diagnostics

The water droplet that extracts the tissue’s molecular content must use purified water for a number of reasons. First, using pure water avoids the risk of impurities interfering with the molecular profiling of the cancerous tissue. In fact, the research team who developed this mass spec-based device found that using pure water generated much clearer molecular profiles of the tissue compared to previously tested substances (ethanol and ethanol-water mixes). (2)

Second, pure water enables the chemical extraction of low molecular weight compounds, such as metabolites and lipids, from the tissue. Finally, pure water is bio-compatible with humans, so this device is well-suited to in vivo analysis as it doesn’t harm the tissue, unlike other ambient ionization techniques that damage or destroy the target tissue. 

ELGA LabWater’s Role in Precision Clinical Diagnostics

Precision medicine is an emerging field that is transforming healthcare and drug development and relies on clinical diagnostic tests, of which water purification systems are an integral part. For example, biomarkers associated with diseases in patients are now being increasingly monitored by drug developers to predict which patients will respond favorably to treatments, speeding up clinical trials and making new drugs more rapidly available to patients at a reduced cost. 

Such patient biomarker profiling typically relies on diagnostic techniques, such as liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), but the quality of the data generated by these tests is dependent on the water quality used. That's because poor quality water can contain impurities, including organics, ions, bacteria, or particulates that can reduce the accuracy of the data generated by mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography, such as loss of resolution, ghost peaks, and shifts in retention times. 

Therefore, high-grade ultrapure water supplied by water purification systems, such as ELGA LabWater’s PURELAB® range (3), can ensure the reliability of biomarker profiles, helping to increase success rates of clinical trials and enable patients to receive potentially life-changing treatments.

Home Diagnostic Testing – Help or a Hindrance?

The emergence of precision medicine has accompanied the development of a booming home diagnostic testing kit market, comprising self-screening kits for a huge variety of conditions ranging from infertility to HIV. Experts are in two minds about these DIY diagnostic tests – they could mark a new medical era or just be a risk to our health. (4)

On the one hand, they have the potential to deliver affordable diagnostic kits to people with little or no access to medical care in the developing world; but on the other hand, removing diagnostic tests from the professional clinical laboratory risks misleading and unreliable results. As such, the current regulatory advice is to ensure that home diagnostic kits are always supplemented by controlled tests in a clinical laboratory, where state-of-the-art analytical technologies and clinical-grade ultrapure water can ultimately ensure patient health isn’t compromised.

With such remarkable initiatives and innovations being developed in clinical diagnostics, it is clear to us at ELGA LabWater that this is an incredibly exciting time for the application of purified laboratory water as a biomedical tool.   

References

[1] https://eberlin.cm.utexas.edu/masspec-pen
[2] https://www.360dx.com/molecular-diagnostics/ut-team-develops-mass-spec-based-device-guiding-cancer-surgery
[3] https://www.elgalabwater.com/products/purelab
[4] https://www.elgalabwater.com/blog/home-diagnostic-testing-kits-new-medical-era-or-risk-our-health

 

Troubleshooting Guide

Blast your problems out of the water...

Find out how to troubleshoot your application problems with our troubleshooting guide

             Download Now

 

Highlights

18 Jan 2021
Forensic Toxicological Analysis Of Cannabinoids In Blood
14 Dec 2020
Developing Batteries Powered by Human Urine 
23 Nov 2020
Improving the Treatment of Diabetic Foot Infections
16 Nov 2020
Does The Type Of Wine Fermentation Vessel Matter?
9 Nov 2020
Investigating ‘DNA Vaccines’ to Prevent Hepatitis B Infection
12 Oct 2020
Printing Personalised Medical Cannabis Products
5 Oct 2020
Can Microscopic Needles Help Treat Skin Cancer?
21 Sep 2020
Turning Mushrooms into Versatile Materials

Categories

  • Analytical Chemistry
  • Clinical & Pharma
  • Cool Science
  • Environment & Sustainability
  • Future Science
  • Life in The Lab
  • PURELAB Product Design
  • Science of the Future
  • Water In The Lab
  • Water Purity

Video

  • Enquiry
  • Get a Quote
  • Book a Demo
  • Find an Approved Partner

Enquiry

Please check this to confirm that you have read our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

Get a Quote

Please check this to confirm that you have read our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

Book a Demo

Please check this to confirm that you have read our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

Call us

Can't find what you are looking for?

Support Number
+44 (0)20 3567 7300
United Kingdom Sales
+44 (0)1628 879 704
United States of America Sales
+1 877-315-3542
France Sales
+33 1 40 83 65 00
China Sales
+86 400-616-8882

 

ELGA LabWater Head Quarters

Lane End Business Park
Lane End, High Wycombe
HP14 3BY
United Kingdom
T: +44 (0) 203 567 7300
F: +44 (0) 203 567 7205

The Ultrapure Water Specialists

  • Support & Services
  • Events

Case Studies

  • Abbott Diagnostics
  • DASA Medical Diagnostics
  • NeoDIN Medical Institute
  • North Staffordshire NHS Trust
  • Olsberg Vocational College

Resources

  • Learn About Ultrapure Water
  • Guides and White Papers
  • Purification Technologies
  • Applications
  • Impurities In Water

Blogs

  • Latest Blog
  • Water Purity - Different Types of Pure Water
  • What is Clinical Laboratory Reagent Water (CLSI)?
  • What is Total Organic Carbon (TOC)?
  • Language
    • Deutsch
    • English
    • Español
    • Français
    • Italiano
    • Português
    • 日本語
    • 中文
  • Other Veolia Sites
    • Veolia
    • Veolia Fondation
    • Veolia Water Technologies

© VWS (UK) Ltd. trading as ELGA LabWater. 2021 - All rights reserved.
ELGA is the global laboratory water brand name of Veolia.

  • Privacy policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Global Legal Compliance
  • Patents
  • Impressum
Elga Veolia
TOP

© 2017 ELGA Veolia