Drug allergy is a significant problem in medical practice both for human and animal. In order to help domestic animals from experiencing this ailment, it is necessary to look for mechanisms that will produce early allergy warning signs. Dr. Ekachai Jenwitheesuk, Researcher at BIOTEC Biostatistics and Informatics and a veterinarian himself has taken on the tasks of researching and inventing a device to test drug allergy for animal.
Ekachai’s previous work was on a dairy cow research project and had much success in using DNA markers technology to determine which cows will produce quality meat and milk. He used his knowledge gained from the cow research experience to work on other animal related project such as the allergies & medical side effects in domestic animals.
To check drug allergy, an animal clinic needs to send blood samples (DNA cells) scraped from the animal inner cheek to the laboratory which can take three days to analyze using PCR and sequencing. The process is considered expensive and time consuming. Ekachai’s animal allergy test kit is a quick fix to the problem. Using the test kit, the clinic can do the blood test themselves and the results can be obtained within an hour. The clinic can then provide appropriate medication without resorting to trials and errors. It is fast and less expensive for both the clinic and the animal owner.
Ekachai’s test kit was one of the projects receiving awards at the NSTDA Idea to Product Competition: Fast Track to Commercialization held in December 2009.