Fort Worth research lab's multimillion-dollar robot could help diagnose Alzheimer's disease earlier
FORT WORTH, Texas - Inside a research lab at UNT Health Science Center in Fort Worth is a multimillion-dollar robot known as "the Unicorn."
The one-of-a-kind machine built in partnership with Hamilton Robotics can help primary care physicians achieve an important goal when treating patients with memory loss by diagnosing Alzheimer's disease earlier.
The robot can test hundreds of blood samples a day, and primary care doctors can order the test without having to send patients to see a specialist.
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Dr. Sid O'Bryant with UNTSHC says it took more than a year for his late grandmother to be diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease back in 1998.
"It's really difficult at this point because referrals to specialty clinics, brain scans and cognitive assessments," he said.
O'Bryant calls the robot a game-changer.
"The field has been trying to find ways to help get an earlier and accurate diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease," he said.
That's where the Unicorn comes in.
Without a patient having to wait to see a specialist, the robot can run approximately 3.9 million tests per year on a specific blood sample versus manually running about 486,000 per year.
Adan Orta and David Julovich spent four years developing the multimillion-dollar machine.
"If you think about it, what the lab could do in a given week, this system could do in a day," Orta said.
The Unicorn’s ability to process data quickly and efficiently allows for a larger number of participants to be studied, including underrepresented groups like Mexican Americans, who have a higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
"Which really provides access to the community to be able to get this test and get results very quickly," Julovich said.
It’s an option Dr. O'Bryant wishes his grandmother had.
"As a field, we failed her plain and simple," he said. "We failed her. I failed her. And I'm fed up with it. I don't think we can keep failing our communities."
The Unicorn just went online in August, so your primary care physician may not know about the test just yet.
UNTHSC says it is working with insurance companies to help minimize the cost of the test. Those details are still being worked out.