SilcoTek at ADLM Clinical Lab Expo 2024: Enhancing Healthcare Diagnostics

A beautiful harbor view of Soldier Field in Chicago, IL, home of the Chicago Bears.

The Association for Diagnostics and Laboratory Medicine (ADLM) Clinical Lab Expo will be held July 28th - August 1, 2024 at the McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, IL. SilcoTek's Luke Patterson and Patrick Dick will be in attendance this year in booth #4565! 

ADLM, formerly AACC Clinical Lab Expo, is a conference that specializes in breakthrough innovations shaping the future of clinical testing and patient care. This annual expo is a significant gathering for professionals, researchers, and companies involved in clinical laboratory science and medical diagnostics.

SilcoTek coatings significantly improve the performance and reliability of analytical instruments in clinical laboratory settings. Our advanced coatings offer inertness, corrosion resistance, and other beneficial properties, crucial for accurate and dependable analytical results in healthcare applications. 

Our coatings improve materials used throughout test labs, hospitals, and manufacturing operations: 

• Biopharmaceutical development and purification
• In-vitro diagnostic autosamplers
• Food contact surfaces to eliminate contamination from listeria and other bacteria
• Chromatography and/or spectrometry of any biomolecule with an affinity for metals
• Replacing fluoropolymers and other materials containing PFAS
• Improving lifetime and performance over passivation or electropolishing 

SilcoTek in Action

What problems do medical applications face in clinical diagnosic applications? If the target analyte or test chemical taken during medical analysis adheres to the sampling or analytical component flow path, it can lead to inaccurate results. Any of the following issues can lead to results that adversely affect the proper diagnosis, and therefore health of a patient:

• Lost or limited detection due to protein binding
• Carryover of analyte proteins released after rinsing during the following test
• Adsorption or reactivity of flow path surfaces causing abnormally low test readings or calibration errors
• Corrosion of flow path surfaces causing pitting and providing hiding places for test compounds to carryover to following tests
  

Here's an example of protein carryover. In this example (published in Applied Surface Science by Abbott Laboratories and SilcoTek^®), 1% mouse IgG was applied to a Dursan^® coated test surface and an uncoated stainless steel surface. Protein levels were measured before and after rinse to measure carryover. The results below show the stainless steel (lower line) retained protein while the Dursan surface exhibited low protein carryover.

Read the entire study conducted by Abbott Labs and SilcoTek^®.

What makes SilcoTek coatings a good solution to these problems?

Stainless steel is a common substrate used throughout medical analytical equipment, but stainless steel is known to be highly adsorptive to many chemical compounds and is susceptible to corrosion when exposed to acids, salt solutions, and bleach. 

2 Key Benefits to using an inert CVD barrier coating in medical diagnostic flow paths:

• Unsurpassed inertness improving analytical reliability and eliminating carryover.
• Our coatings provide barrier protection from corrosion, extending the lifetime of substrates and reducing the risk of downstream metal ion contamination.

Here's an example of how barrier coatings can improve corrosion resistance in precision flow paths like needles. Bleach is an effective cleaning agent but can damage stainless steel flow paths. 72-hour bleach immersion tests show significant corrosion of the stainless steel surface. The Dursan coated stainless steel surface (right bar) reduces the corrosion rate by an order of magnitude or more.

Please stop by booth #4565 to discuss your application with our booth staff! If you'd like to set up a specific time to chat, please reach out to Luke or Patrick! 

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