Chemistry in Pictures: Toxin testing ring

It may look like an ancient codex, but this intricately patterned plate has a modern purpose. Manufacturers must test injected drugs for endotoxins, bacterial contaminants that can cause serious reactions if they enter a person’s bloodstream. The current best practice uses hemolymph—the arthropod equivalent of blood—from horseshoe crabs: not a very sustainable solution. The plate shown here uses microfluidics and pre-loaded reagents to run endotoxin tests using only a tenth as much hemolymph as other assays. Users simply pipette their samples into wells in the outer ring of the plate, then load it into a rotary plate reader. The system’s manufacturers at Veolia say they’re working on updating it to work with completely crab-free toxin testing reagents that are becoming available.

Do science. Take pictures. Win money. Enter our photo contest here.

Click here to see more Chemistry in Pictures.