Accurate Disease Detection for $2

In the US and other industrialized nations, testing for infectious diseases and cancer often requires expensive equipment and highly trained specialists. In countries where resources are limited, performing the same diagnostics is far more challenging. John T. Connelly, from Harvard University (Massachusetts, USA), and colleagues have developed a portable, low-cost “paper machine” for point-of-care detection of infectious diseases, genetic conditions and cancer. Using materials that cost a less than $2 total, the researchers circumvented the otherwise time-consuming and protocol-intensive sample preparation and analysis steps, consolidating the process into a hand-held paper machine. It successfully determined whether as few as five cells of E. coli were present in test samples. The results can be read using ultraviolet light and a smartphone camera.   The study authors describe the innovation as: “The prototype device integrates paper microfluidics (to enable fluid handling) and a multilayer structure, or a ‘paper machine’, that allows a central patterned paper strip to slide in and out of fluidic path and thus allows introduction of sample, wash buffers, amplification master mix, and detection reagents with minimal pipetting, in a hand-held, disposable device intended for point-of-care use in resource-limited environments.”