July 10, 2014
The optical technique of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has been used to detect signs of infection in tissue samples before patients even show symptoms of viral disease. The system could be further developed into a portable lab-on-a-chip (LoC) devices for use in the clinic with potential for applications in the developing world.
A group of biomedical engineers and genome researchers - Hsin-Neng Wang, Andrew Fales, Aimee Zaas, Christopher Woods, Thomas Burke, Geoffrey Ginsburg and Tuan Vo-Dinh - at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, USA, have developed what they refer to as a proof-of-principle approach to using light in order to detect infections before patients show symptoms.