Mayo Alumni Magazine 2002 Spring - MC4409-0402 - Mayo Clinic

of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology,
credits the team with envisioning the
LightCycler as a tool that could be
used for clinical assays as well.
“That’s the beauty of the
LightCycler,” says Dr. Wold. “We can
use it today to identify the presence of
anthrax in a research laboratory, but
tomorrow it can be used to diagnose
strep throat in a physician’s office.”
The LightCycler is a modest-looking
instrument.
“It looks like a coffee maker and acts
like a sophisticated hair dryer,” quips
Dr. Cockerill. “It contains a heating
element and a fan that blows air on the
sample to heat and cool it much faster
than the old heating blocks were
capable of doing. It also incorporates a
mechanism to detect if a probe attaches
to the DNA, indicating that an
infectious agent is present.”
Changing the microbiology
landscape
The team began by prioritizing the
list of disease-causing microorganisms
they slated for developmental activities
using the LightCycler. They focused on
common diseases, such as
streptococcal sore throat, whooping
cough and chicken pox. The anthrax
bacillus was well down the list because
anthrax cases had not been seen in the
United States for decades.
For each targeted microorganism,
team members reduced the DNA
extraction step to a few minutes or less.
Then, using the LightCycler
technology, they combined the second
and third steps — amplification and
probing — into a single, 30-minute
analysis. The entire test eventually
took less than one hour.
By September 11, the Mayo
laboratory stopped using culture tests
for several common infectious diseases.
The rapid PCR tests were faster, cut
costs in half and were more accurate.
“The rapid PCR test can diagnose
219 percent more cases of whooping
cough than conventional culture,”
says Dr. Cockerill. “With increasing
emphasis on molecular diagnostic
testing, patients can soon expect results
from their infectious disease tests on
the same day — just as they do now for
a blood glucose test.”
September 11, the anthrax
outbreaks and the final sprint
“September 11 revealed a
fundamentally different level of
terrorism that caused us to turn the
focus of our development efforts
toward biologic agents,” says Dr. Wold.
Dr. Cockerill was scheduled to teach
at Mayo Medical School on the
morning of September 11 but canceled
classes when he saw the level of
distress among the students.
“Instead, I met with Tom Smith and
Jim Uhl,” he explains. “As soon as we
saw the second plane hit the World
Trade Center, we knew that anthrax
attacks would be a possibility.”
“The LightCycler
contains a heating
element and a fan
that blows air on the
sample to heat and
cool it much faster
than the old heating
blocks were capable
of doing. It also
incorporates a
mechanism to detect
if a probe attaches to
the DNA, indicating
that an infectious
agent is present.”
— Franklin Cockerill, M.D.
Spring 2002 Mayo Alumni 5