Non-invasive Micro-test Technology (NMT®) is a fully computerized system that uses the non-invasive micro-test technique to detect selective ionic and/or molecular activities. It is capable of measuring the flux (magnitude and direction) of selected ions and molecules in a living sample (up to femto(10^-15)moles • cm^-2 • s^-1).

The Non-invasive Micro-test Technique (NMT) is a method used to detect specific and/or selective ionic/molecular activities. It was derived from the Vibrating Probe Technique (VP).

NMT measures the concentration gradient of a chosen molecule and/or ion by means of selective/specific flux sensors 'vibrated' (repeatedly moved between measurement points) at a selected distance in the media. The flux sensor records a voltage at each measurement point representing the local concentration of that ion/molecule being measured. The molecular/ionic fluxes are calculated based on the Fick’s law of diffusion:

where J₀ is the ion flux in the x direction, dc/dx is its concentration gradient and D is its diffusion constant. The direction of the flux is derived from Fick’s law of diffusion that relates the concentration gradient to the diffusion coefficient.

Learn more here: About NMT

NMT measures selective/specific ionic/molecular fluxes close to your samples in pico (10^-12) or femto (10^-15) levels.

The external ionic/molecular fluxes means:

1. The nature and language of living organisms

2. The connections between physiological functions and functions of proteins and genes

3. It's in real time and in situ

There are different definitions of flux in different areas. Here it is defined as: Diffusion flux, the rate of movement of molecules across a unit area (mol•m⁻²•s⁻¹). (Fick's law of diffusion)

These fluxes are vectors at each point in space and have a definite magnitude and direction. Also, one can take the divergence of any of these fluxes to determine the accumulation rate of the quantity in a control volume around a given point in space. For incompressible flow, the divergence of the volume flux is zero.

The ion flux sensor is a glass microelectrode with a short column of liquid ion exchanger (LIX, commercially called ionophores or cocktails) as shown in the picture. The ion flux sensor performs its selectivity due to the ionophore contained within the sensor. Molecule flux sensors are made of metal or nano materials. 

Picomoles/cm²/s: 10^-12 moles of ions/molecules per cm² per second, can be measured in most tests.

Femtomoles/cm²/s: 10^-15 moles of ions/molecules per cm² per second, can be measured in some tests.

NMT can measure phenomena in a matter of seconds, and can monitor the ionic/molecular activities for hours at a time. Theoretically the samples can be kept monitoring as long as they are alive in a liquid media. The spatial resolution is in micrometer scale, although the sample could be a single cell, a group of cells, tissues, organs, or parts of intact organisms.

NMT is able to test samples in many forms. Samples can be a single cell, a group of cells, tissues, organs, or parts of intact organisms.

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