Star Trek conquers SARS

Star Trek uploaded by: Sera78

I’m by no means a Trekkie and barely remember the names of the title characters. However, the one thing I have never forgot was the handheld medical scanner (“tricorder”) the doctor used to find everything from viral infections, internal injuries, neurodegenerative conditions, and even cancer. The speed, specificity, ease of use, and portability of that device were amazing to fathom and I’ve always wondered if I would see one in my lifetime.

Well, this week’s MIT Review of Technology reported that biophysical engineering researchers in the Netherlands (Holland, if you prefer) have invented a new virus-detecting handheld sensor which will detect the presence of viruses AND give you the concentration within minutes. All it requires is a tiny sample of saliva, blood, or other body fluid.

In the near future, we may have on-site screening programs using this sensor at hospitals and emergency clinics that will control viral outbreaks of the next SARS or bird flu. Further in the future, mothers will be saving themselves trips to the family doctor by using these at home everytime lil’ Johnny has a cough.

The device uses a silicon substrate containing channels that guide laser light. Light enters into the substrate at one end and is split into four parallel beams. When these beams emerge at the other end, they spread out and overlap with one another, creating a pattern of bright and dark bands, known as an interference pattern, which the researchers record. On one of the four light-guiding channels, the researchers attach antibodies that bind to the virus. Then they slowly flow a saline solution of the virus along that channel. As the microbes attach to the antibodies, the interference pattern changes. The higher the concentration, the more the interference pattern shifts. By measuring the change in the pattern for different virus concentrations, the researchers establish a fixed relationship between the two factors. Once this relationship is known, the concentration of a new virus solution is calculated by analyzing the sensor’s response for a few minutes. By attaching different antibodies on different light channels, the same sensor could detect multiple diseases.

So far, the sensor has only been successfully tested with herpes virus, but there are plans to test other viruses such as SARS, bird flu, and HIV.

It’s interesting to see how Gene Roddenberry’s vision of the future is actually becoming reality, including those wireless communicators we call bluetooth technology. Maybe it’s time to become a trekkie and watch some old episodes for some new ideas. Anyone got a lead on how to build a transporter?