Cell phone-based tech to allow at-home blood testing

Cell phone-based tech to allow at-home blood testing

Context

Scientists have developed a new cell phone-based blood testing technology that can provide immediate results in the comfort of one’s home or a doctor’s clinic

What has been done?

Researchers at the University of South Florida in the U.S. have created a mobile version of the “Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA)”, a technique used to detect the presence of an antibody or antigen

• Instead of sending patients to a laboratory, the cell phone-based technology allows for the very same test to be conducted in the doctor’s office, clinic or even in a remote area

What is MELISA?

The Mobile Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (MELISA) device measures progesterone levels, a key hormone that impacts female fertility and is indicative of some cancers

• MELISA consists of a water bath heater that incubates samples at a target temperature and analyses them via images taken by cellphone
• It uses colour analysis to determine the RGB (red, green, blue) colour components of each sample

Need for MELISA
Traditional systems for ELISA incubation and reading are expensive and bulky, thus cannot be used at point-of-care or in the field.