Optical data storage technologies take on malaria

Work to develop the world's first hand-held non-invasive malaria detector, which has adapted the magnetic and optical technologies used for data storage, has begun.

Malaria kills at least one million people every year, and it is only reliably diagnosed by examining blood samples under a microscope, which requires both time and expert attention. Researchers from

engineering, computer science and maths school are leading a €1.4m European project to build a system that does the job quickly without even piercing the skin. Partners include

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and

.

'When it infects red blood cells the malaria parasite changes their magnetic susceptibility by transforming normal diamagnetic oxy-haemoglobin into paramagnetic Haemozoin', said

's Dr Dave Newman, a data storage expert. 'We aim to detect that change and determine the degree of infection.'

Healthy, non-infected engineers have donated samples of their own blood regularly so that a baseline for the magnetic readings can be ascertained. Then the analysis will be applied to samples that have known levels of infection, supplied by