FLICKR, STEVE PAINE, CHARLES GOODELL
Electrical and bioengineer Aydogan Ozcan of the University of California, Los Angeles, and his colleagues have developed a smartphone attachment that can estimate the lengths of DNA molecules in a sample, according to a study published this month (December 10) in ACS Nano. The unit—which weighs less than 190 grams, costs only $400, and runs on three AAA batteries—can reveal copy-number variations and other genetic features of disease, making it a potential tool for diagnostic field tests, Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN) reported.
The researchers demonstrated the smartphone microscope’s utility by analyzing purified solutions of fluorescently labeled DNA molecules. By putting the solution between two coverslips, they effectively stretched the DNA into straight lines; then, a compact blue laser within the fluorescence microscope attachment shone ...
