Toronto Researchers Design Cancer-Detecting Microchip

Filed in archive Research on October 1, 2009

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University of Toronto scientists have developed a microchip that can be used to determine the type and severity of a patient's cancer in under 30 minutes.

"By uniting DNA with miniaturized electronic chips, the team was able to develop a chip the size of a fingertip that can analyze a sample and measure biomolecules within half an hour," writes Gizmag's Darren Quick. "The team tested their microchip platform on prostate cancer and head and neck cancer models, but say it could potentially be used to diagnose and assess other cancers, as well as infectious diseases such as HIV, MRSA and H1N1 flu."

"In their work reported in Nature Nanotechnology this week, the researchers say the new device will make sophisticated molecular diagnostics easily available soon," according to The Times of India.

More here from Scientific American ... more here from Computerworld ... and the press release is here.