In an office park in Woburn, MA, a volunteer presents his fingertip for a quick finger stick. A phlebotomist wicks up the small drop of blood with a specially made square of plastic, then snaps the plastic into a credit-card sized microfluidics cartridge and feeds it into a special reader. Fifteen minutes later, the device spits out the volunteer's prostate specific antigen (PSA) level, a protein used to monitor the return of prostate cancer after treatment.
The rapid results are possible because of a novel microfluidics
technology developed by startup Claros
Diagnostics, which hopes to make quick PSA screening in the doctor's
office a reality. If approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration,
the device will be one of the first examples of long-awaited
microfluidics-based diagnostics tests that can be performed in the
hospital or doctor's office. While microfluidics--which allows for the manipulation of
fluids on a chip at microscopic scales--has been around for a decade,
the complexity and expense has kept it largely limited to research
applications.
Claros's technology, which consists of a small blood-collector device, a disposable cartridge, and a toaster-sized reader, could, in theory at least, be adapted to detect any number of different proteins. But the company has initially chosen to focus on PSA, which is routinely screened. With current testing, blood samples are typically sent to a centralized lab for PSA analysis. Results are returned in a day or two. Claros's test, now in clinical trials, would allow PSA readings to be determined during the patient's visit.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Technology Review: Prostate Cancer Results While You Wait
Author: Emily
Singer
