14 DAY TRIAL // HIV is one of the most loathsome viruses currently plaguing mankind, even though it is easier to avoid than illnesses of older times. That is why there is much vested interest in detecting and eradicating it.
Obviously, progress towards the former goal has been inconclusive at best and demoralizing at worst, although some people are immune. Detecting it can be done though.
Not all that easily, however, which is why a team led by Aman Russom of the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden sought out a way to more easily detect if someone is infected.
The method turned out to be, some may say, bizarre to the extreme: the researchers turned conventional DVDs into portable and cheap diagnostic tools.
Blood samples are loaded into micro-channels on a modified, semi-transparent DVD disk and then scanned by a DVD reader, adapted to detect light transmitted through the disk.
The image can then be visualized on a computer screen. Essentially, it is all a cheaper alternative to electronic microscopes.
The new "lab on DVD" system has a resolution of one micrometer, which is the only reason this works.
Previously, using CDs and DVDs for such purposes was impossible because the resolution was too low.
"In the first year, we are going to make the technology robust. In the second we want to apply it to a clinical sample, and then we will look at ways to outsource the technology to other partners," says Russom.
"If you think a model or a system works and there's low maintenance to it, then you can use it," added Jason Warriner, clinical director of the Terrence Higgins Trust, a UK-based HIV and health non-governmental organization.
Part of the funding for this project comes from the European commission, but Russom and the rest of the team are seeking clinical collaborators. The high-quality biological test needs to be validated after all.
Since DVDs and their readers are mass-produced, the modified contraption would cost $200 / €152-200. A hundredth of standard HIV testing tools (flow cytometers).