A SCIENTIST at Dublin City University is to co-ordinate a €3 million international project to develop a completely new kind of blood test.
A pin-prick blood sample is enough to deliver an instant reading and the test kit can then be thrown away.
It will also be possible to connect the kit to a mobile phone so results can be transmitted immediately to a doctor or hospital staff.
Dr Tony Killard, a principal investigator at DCU’s Biomedical Diagnostics Institute, will oversee the EU-funded effort, details of which where announced yesterday by the university.
“It is a diagnostic device that initially will be used to measure cholesterol but could also be used to measure other things in the blood such as glucose [sugar] levels or urea,” he said yesterday.
The testing device was based on “printed electronics”, an inexpensive method where electronic devices are printed in layers on to a plastic surface. Costs are so low that once used the kit can simply be thrown away, he added.
This is despite the fact that the device includes a sensor to read the blood sample, a battery that is also just printed on with the other components, circuits that interpret the sensor reading and then a small display screen where the results are delivered. The goal was to deliver all of this on “a single piece of plastic”, he said.
Printed electronics – produced using something similar to a modified inkjet printer – are an emerging technology, he added. Ireland’s involvement in this medical diagnostics project could help make the country a “serious player” in the industry.
DCU’s institute develops new kinds of sensors and designed one that can test for cholesterol levels in the blood. Other project partners have existing expertise in layer-printed electronics, power supplies and displays.
“The challenge here is the integration of all the components on a single platform, integrating all of the technologies,” Dr Killard said.
Partners in the venture include three companies, Ntera, Unipath and Prelonic, and two academic partners, VTT from Finland and the University of Liverpool.
Printed electronics are being used in a wide range of consumer products including the latest “organic LED” flat screen panel televisions, Dr Killard said. They are lighter and enormously cheaper than conventional silicon-based semiconductor electronics.
Current estimates suggest the printed electronics industry could be worth €300 billion worldwide by 2030, he said.