Electronic Chip To Detect SARS

The Guardian (UK) ^ | 10-6-2003 | John Alionby

[blam]

Electronic chip to detect Sars

John Aglionby in Jakarta
Monday October 6, 2003
The Guardian (UK)

Singapore hopes to launch in January an electronic chip that will give an almost instant diagnosis of whether a person has Sars, dengue fever, flu or some other respiratory illness. Ren Ee Chee of the government-run Genome Institute of Singapore told the island republic's Sunday Times newspaper that the respiratory pathogens detection chip would undergo testing soon in conjunction with an unnamed US company.

Detection probes on the chip, which is about the size of a 10p coin, will analyse saliva or nasal mucus dropped on to it and deliver a rapid diagnosis.

"Patients who have flu, dengue fever or Sars all exhibit similar symptoms in the early stages of infection," Professor Ren was quoted as saying.

"The chip will be able to test for all this at once, identify if it's one or the other and doctors will have a clear picture from the start."

Ever since Sars, or the severe acute respiratory syndrome, killed 33 people in Singapore this year, the government has been pouring resources into finding a reliable diagnosis and a cure.

It is also hoping to turn Singapore into a global biomedical hub as part of its strategy to diversify an economy battered by the technology slump. High-profile scientists including Ian Wilmut, who cloned Dolly the sheep, have been lured to the tightly controlled state.

[blam]

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[aristeides]

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[Judith Anne]

I'm sitting here, drinking my first cup of coffee, trying to figure how something like this chip would work...

[Judith Anne]

If it's real, that would be great...sort of like the little bitty machine we use to test blood sugar with a drop of blood...

I just can't figure out how it would do this...and check for all those different diseases. Doesn't mean it can't be done, but I had this instant flash back to Star Trek and the little diagnostic machine they waved over the patient...

[blam]

"I'm sitting here, drinking my first cup of coffee, trying to figure how something like this chip would work..."

There are (special) chips that can do thousands of biological tests at a time now. Apparently, some have been 'fine-tuned' to be able to detect various forms of the flu. Expect to see more of this in the future...a big break-through would be one that could analyse DNA.

[Judith Anne]

I just don't understand why those machines aren't in every hospital lab in the country. Really!

[blam]

"I just don't understand why those machines aren't in every hospital lab in the country. Really!"

It'll come. It is very expensive to gear-up and make a chip. Normally, the high cost is off set by the prospect of selling millions-billions of a chip of a particular design. Because of the expected low production run of these chips, expect them to be real expensive. Facilities (Wafer-Fabs) these days can cost as much as $3 billion.

[fatima]

aristeides,Bump.