Communications of the ACM
NS Scientists Develop Novel Chip for Fast, Accurate Disease Detection
A new microfluidic chip developed at the National University of Singapore could identify minuscule amounts of biomolecules without requiring lab equipment.
Credit: Sunvivobio.com
National University of Singapore (NUS) researchers have developed a microfluidic chip that could identify minuscule amounts of biomolecules without intricate lab equipment.
"Detection can be performed using standard laboratory microscopes, making this approach highly attractive for use in point-of-care diagnostics," says NUS professor Zhang Yong.
The label-free method leverages the lateral shifts in the position of the microbead substrate in pillar arrays for measuring the biomolecules according to the change in surface forces and size, without requiring any external equipment. The use of lateral displacement means the nano-biomolecules can be detected in real time and significantly faster in comparison to fluorescent label-based detection.
"These techniques can also be extended to many other types of nano-biomolecules, including nucleic acid and virus detection," Zhang notes.
"To complement this chip technology, we are also developing a portable smartphone-based accessory and microfluidic pump to make the whole detection platform portable for outside laboratory disease diagnostics."
From NUS News (Singapore)
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