A Medical Test for the Third World
A team of Harvard University chemists have developed a simple technology that takes an expensive medical device know as a microfluidic chip and puts it within reach of the third world. Using paper and double-sided tape as opposed to rubbers or plastics that require multimillion dollar fabrication equipment, these chips can eventually be made widely available for mere pennies on the dollar.
[They] operate much like a home pregnancy test, in which liquid creeps up a cellulose strip toward a color-changing line. But unlike the pregnancy test, these new chips can split a single stream of liquid into dozens of channels. Each of those canals could be used to perform a different diagnosis for diseases such as HIV, dengue fever or hepatitis.
Beyond health diagnostics, this technology can also be applied to a number of environmental factors ranging from water quality to the health of plants and animals. These initial findings have been published recently in a paper for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Wired: Complex Medical Test Made From Paper and Tape for Three Cents
Comments
| TOPICS: | Health & Wellness, Science |
| TAGS: | biotechnology, chemistry, diagnostics, Harvard, health, innovation, medical, microfluidcs, third world |










Daily Ideas & Inspiration Email