new handheld gadget to detect diseases

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has awarded £826,000 to support the development of a new disease diagnosis device.

Portable and low-cost, the rapid response gadget could help doctors make instant and accurate diagnoses for diseases such as malaria and meningitis.

Cambridge-based nanotechnology firm Akubio is pioneering the device.

The £1.65 million development programme, which will run over the next three years, is part-funded by a collaborative R&D grant under the DTI's Technology Programme.

Other diagnostic devices currently on the market require the addition of expensive chemicals to a sample to enable disease detection.

However, the new gadget utilises the quartz crystal element from a simple wristwatch and can be powered by standard batteries.

It could enable doctors to make instant, accurate, at-the-bedside or in-the- field medical diagnoses from blood or other samples.

Improving quality of life
Science and Innovation Minister Lord Sainsbury said: "This project will turn frontier research in nanotechnology and biotechnology into a marketable product which can create wealth and improve the quality of our lives."

The device's sensor detects specific molecules within a sample, using miniaturised echo sounder acoustic technology to determine the presence of marker proteins for a particular disease or disease-causing pathogens.

These include bacteria or viruses including avian flu, meningitis, E.coli, malaria, heart attack, stroke and some cancers.

"Building on our first commercial product, RAP-id 4, this funding will accelerate our development programme for the portable device and its companion products," said Akubio's Chief Scientist Dr Matthew Cooper.

"Our work is a proprietary application combining the very latest in nanotechnology with the mass-produced quartz crystal resonator that is used in everyday appliances.

"Disease detection and patient monitoring has the potential to be significantly improved and there may also be cost benefits for hospitals and surgeries that could perform tests themselves rather than send away for them, potentially resulting in quicker diagnosis and improved treatment regimes”

Source: scenta.co.uk
Date: 31 October 2006