BACTERIA IN BLOOD
 Broccoli Projects has developed the software and electronics for Bac-Detect, a blood screening device currently being researched by a private company at The Innovation Centre in York, UK. The technology uses electrode arrays and micro-fluidics to electronically measure bacterial organisms in blood and water samples without the use of culture techniques.
Bac-Detect can be applied at critical time points between donation and transfusion of the blood product including at the point of donation, after processing, during storage and just before transfusing into a patient, particularly those patients who have compromised immune systems e.g. following intensive chemotherapy in the treatment of leukaemia, organ transplantation and HIV infection.
Application Development
During the research stage of the Bac-Detect system, a mass of experimental data was generated in the laboratory by the scientific staff tasked with discovering the best method for measuring hazardous bacteria in samples of blood or water. The experimental apparatus included peristaltic pumps, function generators, lock-in amplifiers, and electronic valves.
 Broccoli
Piero was installed on four National Instrument PXI units in the laboratory with interface modules for each piece of apparatus, and two PCs in the office where the results were analyzed. Piero scripts were created that automated existing experimental procedure, and generated tables and graphs. Scientific staff were able to modify the scripts to vary the experiment, and run the experiments with a multi-dimensional array of experimental parameters, without impacting
on the software development team.
Alongside the laboratory research, Broccoli Projects designed a graphical Windows application – the application that would accompany the Bac-Detect system at sale.
Once the scientific team had finalized the measurement procedure and the research was concluded, the final Piero script was imported into the graphical Windows application, and the system was complete.
For more details on the blood analysis system, visit the Blood Analysis website.
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