Compact Chinese device can detect cancer biomarkers from a single drop of blood

a single drop of blood could one day be used to detect early-stage cancer, according to Wen Liaoyong of Westlake University in Hangzhou, China. Wen’s team has shrunk detection systems previously as large as a refrigerator into handheld devices, while improving accuracy by approximately 10,000 times compared to conventional methods. ‘This research introduces a scalable and robust nanophotonics biosensing paradigm for high-performance point-of-care diagnostics in clinical settings, remote areas, and home use,’ Wen stated in the paper’s introduction. Wen, formerly a researcher at theUniversity of Connecticut, joined WestlakeUniversity’s School of Engineering in 2019 as an assistant professor and lead independent researcher. He was promoted to associate professor lastJuly. His research focuses on multi-component nanostructures and their multifunctional applications. Conventional cancer biomarker detection devices typically require prisms, spectrometers, and complex optical paths, resulting in refrigerator-sized machines only operable in specialized laboratories. Wen’s team developed a new approach likened to a leap from ’ hand copying’ to ’ printing press’ technology. By creating a single master version, thousands of uniform chips can be mass-produced on eight-inch wafers, reducing costs to around $5 per chip. The new system only measures light intensity, allowing for a simple setup consisting of a 3D BIC sensor chip, LED light source, and photodetector. Once assembled, it is compact enough for home use without a laboratory. In tests with XiamenUniversity, the device successfully detected small extracellular vesicles ( sEVs) linked to lung cancer. sEVs are crucial liquid biopsy biomarkers, but their low concentration in early-stage patients makes them hard to detect with traditional methods. The handheld device demonstrated 10,000 times greater sensitivity than standard enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in detecting early-stage lung cancer biomarkers. testing 171 lung cancer patient serum samples, the device showed excellent detection capability with 94.9% accuracy for early diagnosis and 92.1% for post-operative monitoring. In contrast, conventional ELISA only achieved 74.7% accuracy. The research paper also highlighted broader applications beyond tumor screening. ‘Micro-nano manufacturing technology, a key enabler of modern information society, is widely used in optical, electrical, and magnetic signal interactions, and is a crucial force driving digital and intelligent transformation,’ Wen said. (South China Morning Post/Z-2)