Imagine a world where almost half the population is infected by organisms that invade the host's body, multiply, weaken the person and can even lead to death. Intestinal parasites are a public health problem and a challenge for health authorities. The parasitological examination of feces is the only one in the routines of public and private clinical analysis laboratories, which is still carried out completely manually, using centuries-old diagnostic techniques, such as spontaneous sedimentation dating back to 1919, and visual analyzes susceptible to human error, mainly due to the lack of knowledge of all parasitic groupings and the fatigue of microscopy professionals.
With a consolidated partnership with Unicamp for more than a decade, the startup Immunocamp Ciência e Tecnologia Ltda., a sister company of the BioBrasil group, has worked to develop more comfortable, fast and effective techniques for processing human and animal feces that include automation. O TF-Test (Three Fecal Test) was the first stage of development. A technique consisting of a more discreet, sensitive and practical parasitological kit for laboratories and patients, now available on the market.
Support for structuring the business through the incubation process of Unicamp's Technology-Based Business Incubator, and interdisciplinary interaction with academia - involving different areas of activity, as well as human and veterinary medicine, computing, chemistry, biology and industrial mechanical engineering – resulted in another five patents. All deposited with the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) with support from the Inova Unicamp Innovation Agency.
One of the three most recent licensing is an unprecedented parasitological examination of feces. The technique uses the principle of Dissolved Air Flotation (FAD). This procedure is already widely used in other areas, such as mining, in the separation of solids and liquids for iron extraction, for example, and by sanitation companies in the area of water and sewage treatment.
“We have a serious problem in the diagnosis of intestinal parasites: when we want to concentrate parasites and separate impurities, essential for a good diagnosis, we use many highly saturated chemical elements. They end up, in a way, destroying the most sensitive species of parasites”, explains inventor Jancarlo Ferreira Gomes, who is currently accredited as a professor and postgraduate advisor at the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Unicamp (FCM) and is also a researcher at the University's Computing Institute (IC).
The invention consists of creating a stream of microbubbles in a liquid medium that suspends and separates the parasites in an area of diagnostic interest. This results in a cleaner material, reducing impurities and aggressive chemical compounds that can distort results. The researchers have already achieved more than 90% adherence for the grouping of helminths and around 50% efficiency with protozoa.
Read article in full on the Unicamp Innovation Agency website.
