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Reviewed By: Laura Martin,
SOURCES: 2009 WebMD Medical Reference from Medstar Television. R. Graham Cooks, PhD, Chemist, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind. Allison Dill, PhD Student, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind.
© 1999-2011 Medstar Television
When melamine in baby formula made news, a technique called mass spectrometry helped isolate the contaminant.
It identifies the particular molecule. Not some related molecule, not even some closely related molecule.
Until now, the only place you could test those samples was inside a vacuum-sealed machine. But now, Purdue researchers have developed a mass spec technique called Desi. It picks up info right from the surface.
The mist of water droplets picks up the chemicals off of the object and transfers them into the device.
Once inside the machine, each molecule is weighed and identified, scientific wizardry that results in familiar things like food labels.
The stuff that's printed on the, on the container, for example. Where does that come from? Okay, it comes from this kind of measurement.
Since Desi makes it possible to test things in regular air, they've down-sized the system to a shoebox, an innovation that could make on-the-spot food analysis possible, like is organic really organic?
The whole organic foods movement, for example, depends on the absence of pesticides and fungicides and so on.
Beyond food, they're also exploring how well the technique lights up cancerous cells from biopsies.
As a pathologist would look at tissue sections, we can see the difference between a tumor tissue and a normal tissue.
Opening the door for Desi to do more in the future. For WebMD, I'm Damon Meharg.
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