British researchers claim to have made significant steps towards developing Star Trek-style tricorders for doctors.
The tricorder in the long-running Star Trek saga is a handheld scanner capable of diagnosing a range of diseases.
Researchers at Glasgow University have named their device a “multicorder.”
It has been developed to measure levels of metabolites in fluid samples and uses CMOS chips and combines a sensor with a smartphone app.
The chips can detect and quantify four metabolites simultaneously, the researchers say.
Developer Dr Samadhan Patil said: “We have been able to detect and measure multiple metabolites associated with myocardial infarction, or heart attack, and prostate cancer simultaneously using this device.
“This device has potential to track progression of the disease in its early phase and is ideally suited for the subsequent prognosis.”
Fellow developer Professor David Cumming said: “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.”
An integrated portable system for single chip simultaneous measurement of multiple disease associated metabolites. Biosensors and Bioelectronics 30 December 2018
Leave a Reply