Lab on a Chip Blog

Ebola, yellow fever and dengue can be tested for in one go

Researchers in the US have developed a silver nanoparticle-based paper test to simultaneously detect dengue, yellow fever and Ebola. This could provide a cheap and reliable diagnosis for all three diseases, that’s as quick as a home pregnancy test.

The Ebola epidemic in West Africa underscores an urgent need for rapid diagnostics; quick identification and patient isolation can benefit the sick and the healthy. However, dengue, yellow fever and Ebola all initially manifest as a fever and headache, so are easily mixed up.

To read the full article please visit Chemistry World.

Multicolored silver nanoparticles for multiplexed disease diagnostics: distinguishing dengue, yellow fever, and Ebola viruses
Chun-Wan Yen, Helena de Puig, Justina O. Tam, José Gómez-Márquez, Irene Bosch, Kimberly Hamad-Schifferli and Lee Gehrke  
Lab Chip, 2015, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C5LC00055F, Communication

We are delighted to welcome Xudong (Sherman) Fan to the Lab on a Chip Editorial Board.

Dr Fan is currently a Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan.

Having completed his B.S and M.S at Peking University, Xudong moved to the USA to complete his PhD at the University of Oregon in the Oregon Center for Optics. From 2000 to 2004, Xudong worked at Research Corporate Lab at 3M Company. In 2004 he took up a position as an Assistant Professor at the University of Missouri where he became a member of Christopher S. Bond Life Sciences Center and the International Center for Nano/Micro Systems and Nanotechnology. In 2010 Xudong moved to the University of Michigan where he is currently a Professor of Biomedical Engineering, a member of Michigan Center for Integrative Research in Critical Care and Wireless Integrated Microsensing and Systems.

Research in The Fan Lab focuses on the development of novel bio/chemical sensor platforms for analytes in either liquid or gas phase using optofluidic technology and multi-dimensional micro-gas chromatography technology. The groups most recent publication in Lab on a Chip ‘Optofluidic lasers with a single molecular layer of gain’ was added to our Lab on a Chip 2014 HOT Articles collection as it received particularly high scores during peer review.

Last year Xudong received a Departmental Award for Outstanding Accomplishment and become a fellow of Optical Society of America. Congratulations Xudong!

Scientists in Spain have flipped the cell-on-a-chip concept to bring us a chip-on-a-cell

Field emission scanning electron microscopy images of a barcode attached to the zona pellucida of a mouse embryo

Jose Antonio Plaza of the Institute of Microelectronics Barcelona and colleagues affixed polysilicon chips, which act as barcodes, onto the outer surface of the zona pellucida, a membrane that surrounds immature egg cells and embryos. Although silicon nanowires penetrated the membrane to attach the chip, they did not interfere with embryo development in tests on mouse embryos.

To read the full article visit Chemistry World.

Silicon-nanowire based attachment of silicon chips for mouse embryo labelling
S. Durán, S. Novo, M. Duch, R. Gómez-Martínez, M. Fernández-Regúlez, A. San Paulo, C. Nogués, J. Esteve, E. Ibañez and J. A. Plaza  
Lab Chip, 2015, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C4LC01299B, Paper