Many neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s  disease and prion diseases (for example, Mad Cow  disease) cannot be definitely diagnosed in a living  person—only autopsy can confirm their diagnosis.  However, in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering,  Professor Kelvin Lee and a colleague at Weill Cornell  Medical College have achieved a proof of concept for  using spinal fluid in an objective, molecular-based test  for Alzheimer’s disease, ante-mortem.

They discovered that about a dozen of the 2,000  or so proteins in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients are  expressed differentially, resulting in identifiable “protein  bar codes.” With further study, these bar codes may  prove particularly useful in diagnosis, and even result in  improved treatments, says Lee, who is also director of  the Cornell Institute for Biotechnology and Life Science  Technologies.

“Traditional technologies for proteomics, such as  benchtop mass spectrometers or systems for twodimensional  gel electrophoresis, are large and tedious  to use. We’re working at Cornell’s Nanobiotechnology  Center to scale these techniques down onto devices  with features that are about 75 microns, and to make  them plastic and disposable.”