Researchers develop Star Trek inspired diagnostic device

Star Trek

Researchers from the University of Glasgow in the UK, have developed a hand-held device inspired by the sci-fi franchise, Star Trek. The device based on a silicon chip makes fast, elegant medical diagnostics more accessible to people around the world. The ‘multicorder’ mimics the famous tricorder device from Star Trek, which is used to make quick, precise diagnoses by the show’s medics.

The new device consists of a hand-held sensor and a smartphone app to examine and measure the levels of various metabolites, small molecules found in fluids from the human body, in fluid samples from patients. Measuring metabolites helps monitoring their abundance and keeping a track of general health or progression of a particular disease.

The device shows great potential in cases of heart attacks, cancer and stroke with its ability to rapidly detect and measure multiple metabolite biomarkers for quick and effective treatment.

Beating the conventional, bulky way of measuring metabolites today, the new device is built on an inexpensive, new form of complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) chip. Smaller than a fingertip in size, it is still divided into multiple reaction zones to determine and measure four metabolites simultaneously from body fluids like serum or urine.

The results published in the journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics, say that the device can be operated through any Android based tablet or smartphone that allows data acquisition, computation, visualisation and power.

“We have been able to detect and measure multiple metabolites associated with myocardial infarction, or heart attack, and prostate cancer simultaneously using this device,” said Samadhan Patil from the University of Glasgow. “This device has potential to track progression of the disease in its early phase and is ideally suited for the subsequent prognosis.”

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“Handheld, inexpensive diagnostic devices capable of accurately measuring metabolites open up a wide range of applications for medicine, and with this latest development we’ve taken an important step closer to bringing such a device to market,” said Professor David Cumming from Glasgow University. “It’s an exciting breakthrough and we are keen to continue building on the technology we have developed so far.”