Stamp-Sized Paper

[Crunchy]

Extract from where i found the article link:

 

Basically, scientists have been toying around with identifying people by phenotype for quite a while, the rapid DNA analysis of Gattaca. What this man has done is taken a process that typically costs about $1000 to make a chip the size of a postage stamp that can tell 1000 phenotypic traits, and turned it into a $.01 chip for identifying diseases such as HIV and hepatitis. His rational is that by doing so he will help better the diagnosis and care of poorer parts of the world. A good rational, but his technology also opens up the possibility of rapid identification by DNA and the discrimination it brings. We're not just talking about being able to show that someone has a weak heart, but being able to show that he might smoke, have eaten a certain type of food recently, and other crazy ridiculous things one can tell from a phenotypic analysis of blood.

 

http://www.inhabitat.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/paper-diagnostic-chip.jpg

 

As far as mobile, ad-hoc medical labs for developing countries go, you can’t get any more mobile or ad-hoc than something the size of a postage stamp. One Harvard University chemist has developed an ultraportable “paper” chip that can diagnose killer diseases like malaria, HIV, hepatitis, and tuberculosis for just a penny at a time. A finger prick’s worth of blood on one side of the paper, according to inventor George Whitesides, produces a colorful, tree-like pattern on the other that indicates what ails you. The surprisingly low-tech secret? Water-repellant comic-book ink.

 

Saturated through several layers of paper, the ink conducts a patient’s blood into the forked channels, where it reacts with embedded chemicals to produce the bloom of diagnostic colors—not unlike a home pregnancy kit, Whiteside notes, except that the chips are smaller, cheaper, and test for multiple diseases simultaneously.

 

Plus, instead of a simple positive or negative reading, the results also illustrate the severity of the disease. Sophisticated technology this isn’t, but for people living in remote parts of Africa or Asia, the chips can quickly identify those who warrant more serious medical attention, as well as individuals who need to be quarantined immediately to stem the spread of a contagion.

 

Whitesides and his team are working with a cellphone manufacturer to develop an app that would tell patients the results of their tests in the absence of medical professionals. “Doctors are as scarce a resource as money is,” he tells CNN.

 

source: http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/03/05/stamp-...r-just-a-penny/

 

Peace,

Crunchy