Scientists say they've invented a hand-held device capable of detecting infectious diseases and cancer cells in minutes. How does it work?
Colleen Coyne is a happy and healthy woman these days, and most importantly, she's cancer free. She was diagnosed with stage four Non-Hodgkins lymphoma not long after her 30th birthday.
"When you keep on going to doctors and they can't find anything you start questioning yourself and like to some extent maybe a bit of your sanity," Coyne said. "And it took some time before test results confirmed the worst. It would have fundamentally changed my experience the years of sort of suffering for lack of a better word wouldn't have been there because they would have picked up on the disease they likely would have picked up on in state one instead of stage four when my life was really threatened."
Now, a computer chip could save lives. A Toronto scientist and her team at the University of Toronto have spent the last decade developing a micro-chip that can tell you a lot about what you can't see. "Infectious disease is the medical condition where rapid turn around is maybe most critical and our chip coupled with portable instrumentation are good at providing very fast answers," said Dr. Shana Kelley.
The chip is the brain of the device. Doctors only need to take a swab from you and the machine will tell you if you carry an infectious disease. That means with just a swab doctors can tell you whether you carry an infectious disease or not and stop the spread before it's too late.
Right now, when you're admitted to the hospital and tested for bacteria, it could take a couple of days to get the results. This machine will do it in 15 minutes. For those on the front lines, the promise of an early diagnose means more lives can be saved. "We can identify patients with most lethal cancer, that's what you want when you screen for cancer. And secondly, how about avoiding a biopsy," said Dr. Robert Nam, Uro-Oncologist.
A European company has jumped on board with more cash to help finance that project, which means this device could be ready for use in a couple of years.
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Information courtesy of NBC News.
