UK Ministry of Defence
The Javelin anti-tank missile system is a killer weapon that seeks out and destroys armored vehicles, but it has now been successfully used to hone in on the malaria parasite. The system uses a Focal Plane Array (FPA), a heat seeking Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy detector that was specifically developed to target tanks. By combining this device with a synchrotron light source and an infrared microscope, Australian researchers from Monash University and University of Melbourne have been able to spot malaria in a single red blood cell even during the parasite’s early stages of development.
The test looks for light signatures of lipids that are correlated to the different stages of malaria present within a cell. The test takes only four minutes to perform and doesn’t require a specialist to interpret the results, but don’t expect to see repurposed Javelins in your clinic any time soon: the synchrotron light source and detectors used in the experiment are not cheap.
Study in Analyst: Diagnosing malaria infected cells at the single cell level using focal plane array Fourier transform infrared imaging spectroscopy…
Monash University press statement: Anti-tank missile detector joins the fight against malaria…
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