Microchannel virus tests

IC industry is starting to apply semiconductor technology to microbiology.

STMicroelectronics Corp. today announced that it has successfully developed a microchip capable of detecting viruses and germs accurately and quickly.

" One of the most interesting applications today is the H5N1 avian flu virus, " said Lab on Chip project manager Stefano Lopriore in an interview for Go Digital. of the BBC.

The ability of the microchip to test is very large, generally all types of diseases can be tested by DNA or RNA. He said such an examination would take about an hour in normal hospital conditions.

In the old technique, a genetic specialist took up to seven days in a well-equipped laboratory to grow the virus, identify the type, and then make the appropriate test.

Here the chip uses Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) technology to detect DNA by comparison. Companies associated with STMicroelectronics decode the DNA of the disease and insert it into the microchip. One such company is Mobidiag in Finland.

" We split the strings of DNA and put it on the microchip, which has the function of zooming in and reacting, " said board chairman Jaakko Pellosniemi explaining the process.

The actual microchip is a microelectronic reactor with a full range of mechanical and electronic components and a set of optical devices.

" Microchips will imaging DNA strands and then the external software will perform a comparative analysis to find out the origin of the disease ."

STMicroelectronics plans to bring the product to market by the end of 2006.

Stefano Lopriore says retail unit prices will not exceed $ 100 and so developing countries can afford to buy. One of the other features of this chip is that it allows people to perform multiple tests simultaneously on the same sample.

However, wait until the beginning of next year for new clinical trials to take place and it will take some time before the device appears massively in hospitals around the world.