No more needles for diagnostic tests?
E-Mail 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... view more 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 con...