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Nanotech serves up mobile blood-test

Diagnostics - Nanotechnology is being used by academics to develop low-cost, disposable blood-testing kits that can be made available in GPs' surgeries.

Professor Peter Ashburn, head of the Nano Research Group at the University of Southampton's School of Electronics and Computer Science has just been awarded a grant by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to develop a unique method for fabricating nanowires, so that these kits can be mass produced. This will mean that routine blood tests can be carried out in GPs' surgeries rather than needing to be sent off to laboratories to be tested.

"Standard clinical laboratory tests have limitations outside the laboratory, which can reduce the diagnostic impact of new protein biomarkers for complex conditions like cancer and chronic inflammation," said Professor Ashburn. "One-dimensional nanostructures such as nanowires are ideal for diagnosis as they can be integrated into microfluidic chips that provide a complete sensor system."

A major part of this project - which will be carried out over a three-year period - is an assessment of the sociological aspects involved in the take-up of nanotechnology in healthcare.

"In particular, replacing hospital lab tests with GP-administered tests requires a whole series of subtle and highly politicised changes to the organization of healthcare. Whilst the technology holds enormous potential, if it is to deliver the socially beneficial innovation so highly prioritised in public consultation, we need to develop in-depth understanding of how it can actually come into use," said Professor Susan Halford at the University of Southampton's School of Social Sciences.

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