Stamp Sized Labs

In an effort to make diagnostic testings more affordable and convenient for all, Dr. Whitesides and his colleagues are printing papers. These papers have been treated in a specific way in order to mimic some simple diagnostic tests such as poison detection, liver damage assessment, hormone detection and other such tasks.

The idea behind it is simple, blood and other bodily liquids are able to diffuse through paper and other such diagnostic tests have been around for a long time (birth tests, diabetes kits, etc). Therefore by manipulating the flow of the liquid through the paper via special channels imprinted by wax through dried proteins and dyes, a specific response can be seen for each possible outcome of the diagnostic.

With more research, Dr. Whitesides is hoping to develop other tests with the same idea but that can be used to detect pathogens, glucose level, malaria detection are among his other ideas. As of now, Dr. Whitesides is operating on grant money because they are a non-profit company. It's the long term goal of the company to license this technology to commercial companies in order to become independent of the grants.

URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/27/health/27paper.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=health