'Lab on a chip' could improve diagnoses
Friday 18th March 2011
A new device developed by a team of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, Dublin City University and Universidad de Valparaiso could mark a milestone in diagnostics.
The self-powered blood analysis chip, SIMBAS, has the ability to process whole blood samples without the need for external tubing and other components.
Made from plastic components, it could be used by field workers to detect diseases such as HIV or tuberculosis in minutes.
Using trenches underneath microfluidic channels around the width of a human hair, the chip separates red and white blood cells from the plasma.
"The SIMBAS platform may create an effective molecular diagnostic biochip platform for cancer, cardiac disease, sepsis and other diseases in developed countries as well," added Professor Luke Lee of the University of California, Berkeley.
In other news, researchers at Boston University School of Medicine have identified a possible new biomarker and therapeutic target for melanoma.
Written by Alex Franklin Stortford
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