Smartphone-based device reads medical diagnostic tests

A team of researchers, from the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA, has developed a mobile phone-based device that can read enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA) plates in the field with the same level of accuracy as the large machines normally found in clinical laboratories

ELISA is a diagnostic tool that identifies antigens such as viruses and bacteria in blood samples.

It can detect a number of diseases, including HIV, West Nile virus and hepatitis B, and it is widely used in hospitals.

Traditional ELISA testing is performed with small transparent plates that resemble honeycombs, typically with 96 tiny wells.

The new device, which is created with a 3D printer and attaches to a smartphone, illuminates the ELISA plate with an array of light-emitting diodes. 

The light projects through each well and is collected by 96 individual plastic optical fibres in the attachment.

The smartphone transmits the resulting images for analysis to UCLA servers through a custom-designed app.

The research, done by the team from ULCA, has been published online in the journal ACS Nano.

.