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Toward Non-invasive Disease Diagnosis With Wellness Cards

Date:
October 29, 2008
Source:
American Chemical Society
Summary:
Scientists are reporting development of a device that could serve as the electronic "reader" for a coming generation of "wellness cards," specimen holders used to diagnose disease from a drop of a patient's saliva or blood.
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Scientists are reporting development of a device that could serve as the electronic "reader" for a coming generation of "wellness cards," specimen holders used to diagnose disease from a drop of a patient's saliva or blood. The research, done by scientists in Utah, Iowa, Arizona, and Minnesota, is presented in two papers in ACS' Analytical Chemistry.

In those studies, Marc Porter and colleagues describe using the same technology at the heart of miniaturized hard disk drives to create the new rapid-screening sensor. Using a phenomenon known as giant magnetoresistance (GMR), the device can detect samples on much smaller areas compared to older technologies, the papers note.

As a test, Porter demonstrated the GMR sensor could detect as few as 800 magnetic beads with microscopic dimensions. "Several laboratories have begun to transition GMRs from the data storage domain to that of the bioanalytical sciences," the paper states. "We believe that, by leveraging advances made in the magnetic recording industry (for example portable digital music players), a robust, field-deployable, assay device capable of sensing single-binding events is just over the horizon."


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Journal References:

  1. Nordling et al. Giant Magnetoresistance Sensors. 1. Internally Calibrated Readout of Scanned Magnetic Arrays. Analytical Chemistry, November 2008 DOI: 10.1021/ac8009577
  2. Millen et al. Giant Magenetoresistive Sensors. 2. Detection of Biorecognition Events at Self-Referencing and Magnetically Tagged Arrays. Analytical Chemistry, November 2008; DOI: 10.1021/ac800967t

Cite This Page:

American Chemical Society. "Toward Non-invasive Disease Diagnosis With Wellness Cards." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 29 October 2008. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081027112944.htm>.
American Chemical Society. (2008, October 29). Toward Non-invasive Disease Diagnosis With Wellness Cards. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 28, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081027112944.htm
American Chemical Society. "Toward Non-invasive Disease Diagnosis With Wellness Cards." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081027112944.htm (accessed March 28, 2024).

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