POC Device for Fast Diagnosis of Bacterial Infections
July 26, 2016 | Terry Sharrer
Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have built a point-of-care device that can diagnose five different bacteria—the major germs responsible for hospital-acquired infections—in two hours time, for less than $2.00 per assay. They describe it working as this: “Bacterial RNA is extracted from a sample in a small, disposable plastic cartridge. Following polymerase chain reaction amplification of the RNA, the material is loaded into a plastic cube containing optical components that detect target RNAs based on the response to a light signal of sequence-specific detection probes. These optical cubes are placed on an electronic base station that transmits data to a smartphone or computer where the results can be displayed.” MORE
Image Credit: MGH