Smart analysis

Researchers working on the EU-funded SMART-BIOMEMS project are developing a system that could enable DNA analysis to be carried out on a single, portable device.

The project is creating a new microsystem – a lab on a microfluidic chip – that can be used in a diagnostic device to automatically analyse DNA samples with high accuracy.

Current technology limits DNA analysis to large, expensive equipment with a high potential for human error due to the different steps involved. Researchers hope that the microanalysis system will improve efficiency as well as the detection and treatment rate.

Project coordinator Gianluca Vezzani said: ‘What we are developing here is a comparatively inexpensive, easy-to-use and portable point-of-care system that will have very real clinical benefits.

‘As there are biochemical reactions occurring on the device, it has to be set up with specific reagents and biological protocols appropriate to the task at hand, and we chose cancer for the initial testing because it is such an important field.’