A Harvard and Mass General developed device may bring rapid, accurate molecular diagnosis of cancer and other diseases to remote locations. The smartphone-based device creates holograms to collect detailed microscopic images for digital analysis of the molecular composition of cells and tissues.
The study’s authors believe that “because the system is compact, easy to operate, and readily integrated with a smartphone, this approach could enable medical diagnostics in geographically and/or socioeconomically limited settings with pathology bottlenecks.”
The D3 (digital diffraction diagnosis) system features an imaging module with a battery-powered LED light clipped onto a standard smartphone. It records high-resolution imaging data with its camera.
With a much greater field of view than traditional microscopy, the system can record data on 100,000 cells from a blood or tissue sample in a single image. The data is transmitted for analysis to a remote server via the cloud. Results are returned to the point of care.
For molecular analysis of tumors, a sample of blood or tissue is labeled with microbeads that bind to known cancer-related molecules. The sample is loaded into the D3 imaging module. After the image is recorded and data transmitted, the presence of specific molecules is detected by analyzing diffraction patterns generated by the microbeads.
Wearable Tech + Digital Health NYC 2015 – June 30 @ The New York Academy of Sciences