Chip to make instant home test for illness possible

Tag : Instant Food

A new tool "lab-on-a-chip" would make a new generation of instanthome tests possible for illnesses, food contaminants and toxicgases in the near future.
These portable, efficient tools are at the lab stage, whereresearchers alone know how to fabricate them from scratch.
Michigan University (M-U) engineers are now working on a 16-piecelab-on-a-chip kit that brings micro-fluidic devices to the masses.
The kit cuts costs and the time it takes to make such a device fromdays to minutes, said M-U's Mark Burns, who developed it withgraduate Minsoung Rhee.
"In a lot of fields, there can be significant scientific advancesmade using micro-fluidic devices and I think that has been hinderedbecause it does take some degree of skill and equipment to makethese devices," Burns said. "This new system is almost like Legoblocks. You don't need any fabrication skills to put themtogether."
A lab-on-a-chip integrates multiple lab functions onto one chipjust millimetres or centimetres in size. It is usually made ofnano-scale pumps, chambers and channels etched into glass or metal.
These micro-fluidic devices that operate with drops of liquid aboutthe size of the period at the end of this sentence allowresearchers to conduct quick, efficient experiments.
They can be engineered to mimic the human body more closely thanthe Petri dish does. They're useful in growing and testing cells,among other applications.
Burns' system offers six-by-six mm blocks etched with differentarrangements of grooves researchers can use to make a custom deviceby sticking them to a piece of glass.
Block designs include inlets, straight channels, Ts, Ys,pitchforks, crosses, 90-degree curves, chambers, connectors(imprinted with a block M for Michigan), zigzags, cell culture bedsand various valves. The blocks can be used more than once.
Burns even grew E coli in one of these modular dishes todemonstrate the viability of his system.
He believes micro-fluidics will go the way of computers, smallerand more personal as technology advances.
Burns said: "You'll be analysing chicken to see if it hassalmonella. You'll be analysing yourself to see if you haveinfluenza or analysing the air to see if it has noxious elements init."st/rd/dg
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