By quantifying the number of tumor-marker-targeting microbeads bound to cells (lower images), the D3 system categorizes high- and low-risk cervical biopsy samples as well as traditional pathology (upper images) does. (Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Systems Biology)
A team at Massachusetts General Hospital has developed a device that utilizes a typical smartphone and is capable of performing advanced molecular diagnostics in any setting. The D3 (digital diffraction diagnosis) system captures tens of thousands of cells in each image using an optical component, LED light bulb, and the phone’s camera. The samples are labeled with specialty microbeads that cling to tumors or other target cells. When imaged with the D3 system, the beads initially show up blurry and hard to spot. The images are then passed on to a remote computer that processes them, performing a backwards reconstruction caused by tissue diffraction, returning a result of whether the target molecules pointing to specific disease have been found.
The system was tested by having it look for precancerous and cancerous cells in cervical tissue specimens, as well as for identifying the DNA of human papillomavirus (HPV). Results came back within 45 minutes of testing, agreeing with what was diagnosed using traditional pathology and HPV testing tools.
Here’s a demo of the D3 smartphone app:
Study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: Digital diffraction analysis enables low-cost molecular diagnostics on a smartphone…
Source: MGH…
