The analysis of saliva and other oral fluids has great potential for diagnosing oral and systemic diseases, monitoring levels of environmental toxins and drugs of abuse, and preliminary screening for exposure to biological and chemical warfare reagents. The use of saliva and other oral fluids as diagnostic samples may become preferred over other bodily fluids in many applications because oral fluids can be sampled quickly and inexpensively in both clinical and nonclinical settings.
Although clinical studies have demonstrated the usefulness of saliva and other oral fluids in some applications for detecting markers of oral and systemic diseases, the development of diagnostic technology and devices has not met the expectations. Moreover, current assay techniques are time-consuming, require relatively large amounts of samples, and are not amenable to automation and portability.
The objectives of this project are:
The success of these objectives should enable technology transfer and use of this device in clinical periodontology, as well as potential applications in preliminary screening for systemic diseases and exposure to biological warfare agents.
This work is funded by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, and the National Institutes of Health.
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