Paper 'chips' may fight disease

[jtluttrell]

Put this on the list of wonderful inventions we will never see.

Phones, paper 'chips' may fight disease - CNN.com

(CNN) -- A chemistry professor at Harvard University is trying to shrink a medical laboratory onto a piece of paper that's the size of a fingerprint and costs about a penny.

George Whitesides has developed a prototype for paper "chip" technology that could be used in the developing world to cheaply diagnose deadly diseases such as HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, hepatitis and gastroenteritis.

The first products will be available in about a year, he said.

His efforts, which find their inspiration from the simple designs of comic books and computer chips, are surprisingly low-tech and cheap.

Patients put a drop of blood on one side of the slip of paper, and on the other appears a colorful pattern in the shape of a tree, which tells medical professionals whether the person is infected with certain diseases.

Water-repellent comic-book ink saturates several layers of paper, he said. The ink funnels a patient's blood into tree-like channels, where several layers of treated paper react with the blood to create diagnostic colors.

It's not entirely unlike a home pregnancy test, Whitesides said, but the chips are much smaller and cheaper, and they test for multiple diseases at once. They also show how severely a person is infected rather than producing only a positive-negative reading.

This pattern could tell medical professionals whether a person is infected with certain diseases.

The paper chips are expected to be used in concert with mobile phones, which are exploding in popularity in the developing world.

Since people in remote parts of Africa and Asia often have to travel great distances by public transit or foot to reach a medical clinic, patients simply can take photos of the chips with cell phones and then send them to larger cities for diagnosis. And Whitesides said his group is also working with a cell phone maker to develop apps that would tell patients the results of their tests automatically if doctors aren't available.

"Doctors are as scarce a resource as money is," he said.

The tests may also be useful for highly contagious diseases such as hepatitis C, which require sick people to be quarantined to prevent further infection.

[Guest Jamie]

"Doctors are as scarce a resource as money is,"

But they've got cell phones to take pictures with?

Anybody else see something wrong with that?

J.

[Guest db99wj]

But they've got cell phones to take pictures with?

Anybody else see something wrong with that?

J.

Great, some poor, diseased, hungry, no water having, livening in some of the poorest places on earth guy gets an Iphone and I still haven't got one!?!

It is a good invention, and hopefully will be produced and do some good, but the cell phone comments are crazy!

[Guest Jamie]

I'm still wondering how many doctors a place could pay, for the cost of one cell tower.

Also wondering what good it does to know what's killing you if there's no one or way to treat the illness...

J.

[jtluttrell]

Great, some poor, diseased, hungry, no water having, livening in some of the poorest places on earth guy gets an Iphone and I still haven't got one!?!

It is a good invention, and hopefully will be produced and do some good, but the cell phone comments are crazy!

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