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Aydogan Ozcan's cell phone doubles as AIDS detection lab
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03-26-2009 - health
Aydogan Ozcan: Most HIV patients today are either in India or Africa, and they don’t have the resources to really take blood, send it to a central lab, get the counts back.
Aydogan Ozcan is head of the Bio-and Nano-photonics Laboratory at UCLA. He’s developing a device to detect infectious diseases in people in the most impoverished parts of the world, using a cellphone.
Aydogan Ozcan: If you look at the statistics of how cellphones are being used in the world, it’s an amazing story to find that more than 20% of the population in Africa, in India, in Brazil – they still carry cellphones.
Dr. Ozcan, who’s an optics expert, modified a standard cellphone with a camera sensor to diagnose malaria and monitor HIV-infected patients. He added a special blue light, and a place for a tiny glass slide that holds a blood sample.
Aydogan Ozcan: We detect the shadow of cells. That is kind of like the fingerprint of the cell – if it’s infected, it’s going to yield a different shadow.
Ozcan’s modified phone photographs these shadows, then sends the images to a database. Within 5 minutes, the database sends the phone a text with the results of the analysis. Dr. Ozcan believes this technology could be especially helpful to people in poor, remote villages.
Aydogan Ozcan: It’s a technology that will provide bread and butter for people who don’t have anything.
Our thanks to Aydogan Ozcan.
Aydogan Ozcan is head of the Bio-and Nano-photonics Laboratory at UCLA.
Written by Beth Lebwohl
Comments (5)
at 12.48 pm on 03-26-2009 Liza
What wonderful work this scientist is doing. I am so glad that EarthSky profiled his work; I haven’t heard of anything like this being done. It’s great to know that there is technology out their that is truly helping people in a vital way, and great that the ubiquitousness of mobile phones can be leveraged. It seems this could have quite an impact on public health and the fight against HIV/AIDS. And it is so important that these health technologies are not just benefiting the privileged but helping those in real need, in places without many of the health provisions we enjoy in industrialized nations.
Replyat 1.22 pm on 03-26-2009 Beth Lebwohl
Great to hear from you, Liza. I totally thought the same thing!
Replyat 12.43 pm on 03-28-2009 Hank
Detecting cell shadows? What a brilliant concept. A lab with such portability and telemetry built into a hand held device is an incredible tool for delivering medical diagnostics to people who don’t otherwise have access to it. I’m wondering if Ozcan has tried using the blue light sensor to detect sickle cell anemia yet? I would expect the sickle cell to cast a unique shadow.
I can envision this technology evolving to include other detectors. For example, a miniature mass spectrometry sensor could pinpoint diagnose a broad array of diseases and genetic anomalies. Of course, a lot of work would need to be done to get current spectrometers downscaled in size. Ozcan’s work is only a few steps short of creating the hand held medical scanner used in Star Trek. Who would have imagined?
Replyat 7.29 pm on 11-23-2009 Ed Powers
sensitivity? specificity? Any false positives? false negatives? Remarkable technology!!
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at 12.48 pm on 03-26-2009 Liza
What wonderful work this scientist is doing. I am so glad that EarthSky profiled his work; I haven’t heard of anything like this being done. It’s great to know that there is technology out their that is truly helping people in a vital way, and great that the ubiquitousness of mobile phones can be leveraged. It seems this could have quite an impact on public health and the fight against HIV/AIDS. And it is so important that these health technologies are not just benefiting the privileged but helping those in real need, in places without many of the health provisions we enjoy in industrialized nations.
Reply
at 1.22 pm on 03-26-2009 Beth Lebwohl
Great to hear from you, Liza. I totally thought the same thing!
Reply
at 12.43 pm on 03-28-2009 Hank
Detecting cell shadows? What a brilliant concept. A lab with such portability and telemetry built into a hand held device is an incredible tool for delivering medical diagnostics to people who don’t otherwise have access to it. I’m wondering if Ozcan has tried using the blue light sensor to detect sickle cell anemia yet? I would expect the sickle cell to cast a unique shadow.
I can envision this technology evolving to include other detectors. For example, a miniature mass spectrometry sensor could pinpoint diagnose a broad array of diseases and genetic anomalies. Of course, a lot of work would need to be done to get current spectrometers downscaled in size. Ozcan’s work is only a few steps short of creating the hand held medical scanner used in Star Trek. Who would have imagined?
Reply
at 7.29 pm on 11-23-2009 Ed Powers
sensitivity? specificity? Any false positives? false negatives? Remarkable technology!!
Reply