Monday, July 02, 2012

Lap-on-a-chip update

I have blogged a few times about new technology called Lab-on-a-chip.  Currently in development this product will allow cheaper blood diagnostics. A Forbes article I read years ago speculated that eventually we'd have dozens or hundreds of tests on a single silicon chip for pennies and you could run tests every day, at the same time you take your vitamins. There are a number of dieases and conditions that if you catch them early are much more manageable.

Nano nod for lab-on-a-chip is a recent article about this technology:

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Each post performs its own genetic test, meaning you can not only find out whether you have malaria, but also determine the type of malaria and whether your DNA makes you resistant to certain antimalarial drugs. It takes less than an hour to process one chip, making it possible to screen large populations in a short time.


“That’s the real value proposition—being able to do multiple tests at the same time,” Acker said, adding that the Domino has been used in several recently published studies, showing similar accuracy to centralized labs.
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They are looking at a box that sells for $5,000, and each chip will cost only a couple dollars.  This isn't quit the home model version, but we are getting there!

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