New Blood Analysis Chip Could Lead to Disease Diagnosis in Minutes

ScienceDaily ^ | Mar. 18, 2011 | NA

[neverdem]

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Photograph of the stand alone 1x2 inch SIMBAS chip simultaneously processing five separate whole-blood samples by separating the plasma from the blood cells and detecting the presence of biotin, or vitamin B7. (Credit: Ivan Dimov)

— A major milestone in microfluidics could soon lead to stand-alone, self-powered chips that can diagnose diseases within minutes. The device, developed by an international team of researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, Dublin City University in Ireland and Universidad de Valparaíso Chile, is able to process whole blood samples without the use of external tubing and extra components.

The researchers have dubbed the device SIMBAS, which stands for Self-powered Integrated Microfluidic Blood Analysis System. SIMBAS appeared as the cover story March 7 in the peer-reviewed journal Lab on a Chip.

"The dream of a true lab-on-a-chip has been around for a while, but most systems developed thus far have not been truly autonomous," said Ivan Dimov, UC Berkeley post-doctoral researcher in bioengineering and co-lead author of the study. "By the time you add tubing and sample prep setup components required to make previous chips function, they lose their characteristic of being small, portable and cheap. In our device, there are no external connections or tubing required, so this can truly become a point-of-care system."

Dimov works in the lab of the study's principal investigator, Luke Lee, UC Berkeley professor of bioengineering and co-director of the Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center.

"This is a very important development for global healthcare diagnostics," said Lee. "Field workers would be able to use this device to detect diseases such as HIV or tuberculosis in a matter of...

[neverdem]

My guess is that you have to know what you want to test for already, e.g. HIV or TB, but it can test vitamins, e.g. biotin, so it can be used for some blood chemistry. I wonder if it can do a complete blood count with differential?

[neverdem]

micro ping - the DOI at the end of the presser links the abstract. It’s supposedly a free article, but I see no easy way to register.

[Smokin' Joe]

Thanks for the ping! (We’re getting closer to Doc. McCoy’s tricoder all the time.)

[Smokin' Joe]

I get a ‘page moved or under construction notice’ at the link.

[HiTech RedNeck]

To be able to do counts instead of chemistry you’d need something with visualization capability. But I don’t know why that would be hard. Cyber labs are going to be the wave of the future.

[algernonpj]

Try this link:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101213071117.htm

[algernonpj]

Try this link:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101213071117.htm