New chip could diagnose HIV and leukemia

Diagnosing diseases such as HIV and leukemia could soon be as simple as screening cells using an inexpensive, portable device. The new chip can focus cells into a single stream and assess them in three ways using optical sensors, a process called flow cytometry. Most cases of HIV are diagnosed using flow cytometry, but traditional methods can be costly and complex. The new device could make it possible to utilize flow cytometry techniques in a clinical setting for as cheap as $1,000 a device, compared with $100,000 for current machines. The developers of the device used microfluidic drifting to create the focused stream of particles and used pre-existing fibers for the optical-fiber delivered laser beams and optical signals of the chip. "Our machine is small enough it can be operated by battery, which makes it usable in Africa and other remote locations," Tony Jun Huang, a professor at Penn State who was part of the team that designed the device, said.