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IMAGE: Engineers at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis have developed a microneedle patch that can be applied to the skin, capture a biomarker of interest...
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Credit: Image: Sisi Cao
Blood draws are no fun.
They hurt. Veins can burst, or even roll -- like they're trying to avoid the needle, too.
Oftentimes, doctors use blood samples to check for biomarkers of disease: antibodies that signal a viral or bacterial infection, such as SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19; or cytokines indicative of inflammation seen in conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and sepsis.