A USB Stick Can Show HIV Test Results In Under 30 Minutes (qz.com)

Researchers at Imperial College London have developed a USB stick that can measure the presence and amount of HIV in a person's blood in under 30 minutes and with 95% accuracy. The USB stick should help make testing easier in places like sub-Saharan Africa, where HIV is a serious problem and where many people live in rural regions hours or days travel away from hospitals or clinics. Also, traditional HIV testing can take days to show results, whereas the USB stick can show results in minutes. Quartz reports: The new diagnostic tool, co-created by the university and biotech company DNA Electronics, requires simply putting a single drop of blood onto a designated spot on the USB stick. The device contains a mechanism that can detect if there's any HIV genetic material -- RNA -- in the drop of blood, and if so, how much. Then, when the stick is connected to a laptop or handheld device, the data are automatically delivered to an app where the patient can quickly read his or her results. One of the most effective HIV treatments currently, called anti-retroviral treatment, reduces virus levels to near zero. However, in some cases, the virus may develop a resistance to medication or therapy, causing the virus to resurface. To catch such developments early, patients can use the devices for monitoring purposes. "The disposable test could be used by HIV patients to monitor their own treatment and help patients in remote regions of the world, where more standard HIV tests are inaccessible," the authors of the study write. For now, it's still in the proof-of-concept stage, and years away from hitting the market.

Comments

DNAe has pedigree

[Anonymous Coward]

For edification, DNAe actually has some merit. They're a London based company and developed the technology behind the Ion Torrent DNA sequencer that is sold by Thermo Fisher. The Ion Torrent is a valid machine, although not quite as good as the MiSeq from Illumina. It works by breaking DNA up and the hydrogen ions released create a measurable signal alteration on the silicon FETs; the chemistry invovled is astounding to make it go where you want and sequence stuff.

https://www.thermofisher.com/us/en/home/brands/ion-torrent.html

This appears to be a miniaturization of the technology. Viruses, particularly RNA viruses, have a lot fewer genes to work with; HIV only has 9 genes as compared to the human genome which has around 25,000. Since you don't need as much processing power it's conceivable you could miniaturize the Ion Torrent technology for a smaller target like HIV viral RNA.