Lab on a chip/Rev II

Realtime diagnostics on a chip will change everything regarding medical, especially when combined with AI and the ubiquity of the net, facts most disquieting to the present day disaster known as HC in America, where costs run amok and people not getting what they paid for when being treated for malady X. With IBM's Lab on a chip tech, the move toward a digital Dr. Welby, as described in BRT circa 2013, is one step closer to reality.

IBM scientists have developed a new lab-on-a-chip technology that can, for the first time, separate biological particles at the nanoscale and could enable physicians to detect diseases such as cancer before symptoms appear.

As reported today in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, the IBM team's results show size-based separation of bioparticles down to 20 nanometers (nm) in diameter, a scale that gives access to important particles such as DNA, viruses and exosomes. Once separated, these particles can potentially be analyzed by physicians to reveal signs of disease even before patients experience any physical symptoms and when the outcome from treatment is most positive. Until now, the smallest bioparticle that could be separated by size with on-chip technologies was about 50 times or larger, for example, separation of circulating tumor cells from other biological components.

Times they're are a changing - Dylan

A view of IBM's lab-on-a-chip mounted in a microfluidic jig. IBM scientists have developed a new lab-on-a-chip technology that can, for the first time, separate biological particles at the nanoscale and could help enable physicians to detect diseases such as cancer before symptoms appear. The technology allows a liquid sample to be passed, in continuous flow, through a silicon chip containing an asymmetric nano-pillar array. (Credit: IBM)