14 DAY TRIAL // A team of engineers and students at the University of Rhode Island invented the lab-on-a-chip, a device that allows fast and inexpensive blood tests, and this might just be the next application on your smartphone.
For a normal blood test, a vial of blood is shipped to a laboratory for analysis, and it sometimes takes days before having a result.
But now, with the new portable device from the Rhode Island University team, a drop of blood will be enough to have the results in under 30 minutes.
Of course, the concept of a portable lab is nothing new so several patents are pending on the invention, but unlike similar devices invented by other scientists, this one is much smaller, more portable, cheaper and it only needs a drop of blood.
Mohammad Faghri, URI professor of mechanical engineering and the lead researcher on the project, said that “this development is a big step in point-of-care diagnostics, where testing can be performed in a clinic, in a doctor's office, or right at home.
“No longer will patients have to wait anxiously for several days for their test results.
“They can have their blood tested when they walk into the doctor's office and the results will be ready before they leave.”
The researchers first developed cartridges that focus on detecting C-reactive proteins (CRP) in the blood, since it's a good way of helping doctors evaluate the risk of cardiovascular and peripheral vascular diseases.
In 2002, Medicaid paid for 145,000 CRP tests, by 2004 the numbers tripled, reaching 454,000, and since then, the figures have quadrupled.
In this new technology a drop of blood is placed on a plastic polymer cartridge smaller than a credit card and inserted into a shoebox-sized biosensor with a miniature spectrometer and piezoelectric micro-pump.
The blood travels through the cartridge in small channels 500 microns wide to a detection site where it reacts with preloaded reagents enabling the sensor to detect certain biomarkers of disease.
Faghri said that additional cartridges can be designed to detect biomarkers of other diseases, like HIV, hepatitis B and H1N1 flu.
For now, the researchers are working on a device that will detect the beta amyloid protein levels in the blood, so that it can be used as a predictor of Alzheimer's disease.
Also, the next generation of the device will include a hand-held sensor that will reduce manufacturing costs.
The sensor alone costs about $3,200, but each test costs just $1.50 (the cost for the plastic cartridge and reagents) so the device is actually profitable.
Faghri also hopes to built an ever smaller version of the device, so that it can be adapted as a smartphone application.
He explains that by embedding the biosensor in the cartridge and using the computer power of the phone and its wireless communication capabilities, patients should be able to test themselves and send the results immediately to their doctor's office via their phone.
Besides the obvious benefits, this invention should help reduce health care costs dramatically.
“We are already making progress on many of the steps toward the next generation of the system, and it won't be long before we can begin to commercialize it,” added Faghri.
The main funding for the project was provided by the National Science Foundation through its Partnership for International Research and Education.