New medical-diagnostic device made out of paper

A new medical-diagnostic device made out of paper detects biomarkers and identifies diseases by performing electrochemical analyses - powered only by the user’s touch - and reads out the color-coded test results, making it easy for non-experts to understand.

"You could consider this a portable laboratory that is just completely made out of paper, is inexpensive and can be disposed of through incineration,"said Ramses V. Martinez, an assistant professor of industrial and biomedical engineering at Purdue University. "We hope these devices will serve untrained people located in remote villages or military bases to test for a variety of diseases without requiring any source of electricity, clean water, or additional equipment."

Research findings are detailed in a paper appearing in Advanced Materials Technologies (August 22, 2017).

Watch the YouTube video: https://youtu.be/dOBTO8ScTe8

Read Purdue News article "Self-powered paper-based ‘SPEDs’ may lead to new medical-diagnostic tools" (August 21, 2017)