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Tuesday, 4th November 2008 (4582 views)

Scientists from the University of Utah have created a device similar to a credit card swiping machine that uses gold particles to carry out health checks.

It uses giant magnetoresistance (GMR) - the same principle that is used to read hard drive data and produce music on digital players - to test for diseases.

Marc Porter, a professor of chemistry, chemical engineering and bioengineering, said: "Think how fast your PC reads data on a hard drive, and imagine using the same technology to monitor your health"

Microscopic spots of gold, no bigger than the smallest known bacteria, were used in the development of the device.

Professor Porter claimed that the device could eventually be developed to detect diseases on a single particle.

The work has been published in the November 1st edition of the journal Analytical Chemistry.

Recently, researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology created an improved optical microscope that provides enhanced images of gold nanoparticles - which could help to achieve the perfect size for the particles to carry life-saving drugs.

 

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