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Health See other Health Articles Title: Researchers invent a microchip to diagnose type 1 diabetes ScienceAlert...Diagnosing type 1 diabetes has never been easier thanks to a new device that, when approved, could have a production cost of US$20. Image: Norbert von der Groeben/Stanford UniversityType 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the pancreas. As a result, this organ stops making insulin, a hormone that processes sugar. Diagnosing type 1 diabetes is expensive and time-consuming because doctors need to identify specific protein markers in the blood—and getting the results sometimes takes weeks, which may delay the treatment. But researchers at Stanford University in the US have used nanotechnology to create a microchip that diagnoses type 1 diabetes in minutes. “With the new test, not only do we anticipate being able to diagnose diabetes more efficiently and more broadly, we will also understand diabetes better—both the natural history and how new therapies impact the body,” said lead author of the study, paediatric endocrinologist Dr Brian Feldman in a release. The chip relies on a fluorescence-based method for detecting antibodies in the blood and has a special coating with an array of nanoparticle-sized islands of gold that intensifies the fluorescent response, helping doctors identify the antobodies faster, explains science writer Erin Digitale in a news release. Each chip is expected to cost around US$20 to produce and can be used more than 15 times. It works with blood from a finger prick, and the researchers are just waiting for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to commercialise it. Type 1 diabetes used to be diagnosed almost exclusively in children, but given the childhood obesity epidemic, about a quarter of newly diagnosed children have type 2 diabetes, explains Digitale. For unclear reasons, the incidence of type 1 diabetes in adults has been increasing throughout the world over the past few years. “There is great potential to capture people before they develop the disease, and prevent diabetes or prevent its complications by starting therapy early,” Feldman told Digitale. “But the old test was prohibitive for that type of thinking Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
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