Many were the studies taking advantage of our products published last month. It was a tough choice, but here are the top three papers:

• Another prospective cost-benefit analysis by Dr. Budowle and his team, which compared our 4N6FLOQSwabs® against cotton swabs with a “Monte Carlo simulation.” Like last October’s paper, the slightly higher cost of using a nylon swab paled compared with the potential tangible and intangible benefits of the device, providing a sounder basis for forensic laboratories to request additional funds to support the implementation of this new technology.
• The second international study aims to explore and characterize the microbiota of the healthy eye. With a metagenomics approach, the researchers found that the eye microbiome is a low-diversity population, with most of the analyzed samples highly enriched with Staphylococcus. By introducing the term eye community state type – to stratify the different profiles of bacterial communities that coexist together in a healthy eye – and identifying nine distinct community profiles, Borroni et al. propose that a better understanding of the healthy eye microbiota could improve disease diagnosis and personalized eye medicine.
• The last study – from the US – evaluates the pros and cons of home-based self-sampling kits for the screening for anal cancer caused by an HPV infection. The study randomized men who have sex with men and transgender persons to receive a mailed self-sampling kit or attend a clinic for screening. The researchers assessed temperature, freeze-thaw cycles, the presence of fecal matter, and days in an uncontrolled environment of every sample. By analyzing samples with HPV genotyping, they found that more than 90% of specimens were adequate for the analysis and that samples inadequacy was not associated with temperature, freeze-thaw cycles, or transit time. On the contrary, the presence of fecal matter contamination predicted specimen inadequacy. The team concludes that environmental conditions do not affect specimen adequacy and suggest self-collection as a valuable tool for screening for HPV-induced anal cancer.

Read the complete studies below: