Gadget of the year? Diagnotics For All’s Lab on a Chip

There have been some incrediible medical breakthroughs this year, but the one that has got us most excited come from Boston-based company Diagnostics For All. It has developed what is essentaily a whole lab on a chip which can be used to test everything from urine to blood and a whole lot more.

The team, headed by Harvard University’s Dr Whiteside, have patented a small (about the size of a postage stamp) paper lab. It requires a single drop of blood, takes 15 minutes process and doesn’t need any magnifying equipment as it can be read by an untrained eye.

The first benificiaries of the new paper based chip are likely to be AIDS sufferers with tuberculosis. Although huge strides have been made in the treatment of HIV and AIDS, sufferers with tuberculosis are still at risk as they have to take a cocktail of drugs some of which can, for some people, cause damage to the liver. The test will mean that possible liver damage can be spotted at a much earlier stage.

The paper tests are not only small and easy to transport – they are also cheap at around 50 cents per test. The test was developed following a $10 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and a further $3 million from the British government.

You can read more about the lab on a chip here.