MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ken Long, MD/PhD student Department of Bioengineering Micro and Nano Technology Laboratory University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Urbana, Illinois MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Traditional laboratory-based spectrometers are a mainstay of clinical diagnostics.  In our recent Lab on a Chip article we sought to produce a handheld device that would be able to perform three broad classes of spectrometric tests that one might normally do in a laboratory (Transmission-based, Reflection-based, and Intensity-based) on a smartphone-based handheld device that could be used at the point-of-care. Using high-resolution 3D printing, a custom optical fiber, and some off-the-shelf lenses, we were able to design, assemble, and demonstrate a device capable of reproducing results of traditional benchtop equipment when measuring results from commercially-available tests.  The device is small enough to hold in the palm of your hand, cost less than $550 to build the prototype, and has the ability to read multiple tests using the video-capture capabilities of the smartphone and a swiping motion with liquid test cartridges, much like swiping a credit card through a reader.  The two tests demonstrated in the paper were for a biomarker associated with pre-term birth in pregnant women, and a PKU test for newborns that can defect a critical nutritional enzyme deficiency. (more…)