A new test uses microfluidics to diagnose cancer with a single drop of blood at a much reduced cost.Current testing technology takes several vials of blood and each test costs about $500. The new test needs only one drop of blood, takes ten minutes, and uses a slide costing about five cents per targeted protein.
James Heath at CalTech and Leroy Hood of the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, have founded Integrated Diagnostics to produce and sell their new blood-drop method.
The new technique uses an "integrated blood bar code chip" designed to separate organ-specific proteins from the blood and pass them through tiny channels coated with strips of DNA bound to antibodies that capture these proteins. The proteins are then coated with a material that lights up under a fluorescent microscope.
Clinical trials are underway.
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