University researchers working to perfect micro DNA technology

On any given day, patients make the trip to doctors’ offices for biopsies and then must endure several more torturous days before learning whether they have cancer.

On any given day, a detective somewhere waits for forensic evidence to be returned from a lab while a criminal walks the streets.

And, on any given day in an emergency room somewhere, doctors wonder how long it will take to learn which deadly bacteria have infected a patient.

University of Virginia researchers are working to develop “lab-on-a-chip,” which could drastically change such scenarios by shrinking technology that requires time, laboratories full of people and expensive equipment into a glass slide smaller than a credit card.

Such technology has been promised for close to two decades, warns James Landers, a University of Virginia professor of chemistry and mechanical engineering and an associate professor of pathology. He is the lead researcher for the lab- on-a-chip project.

While he is cautious about the “unknowns” yet to be dealt with, Landers believes the technology is within reach.

‘Real-world scenarios’

If he is right, soon the cancer patient will learn his diagnosis at the doctor’s office; the detective will be able to discover the criminal’s identity at the scene; and the ER doctors will be able to start aggressively fighting the deadly bacteria in a half-hour instead of days later.

The goal is to affect “real-world scenarios,” Landers said, and to do it cheaper, better and faster.

Molly Hughes, a UVa physician and researcher focusing on infectious diseases, said the technology could help “significantly reduce” turnaround time when diagnosing infectious diseases.

“It could really change what we do for the patient in terms of the selection of antibiotics,” said Hughes, part of the lab-on-a-chip research team. “It would help in choosing the right drug for the right bug.”

Fluid instead of electrons

Lab on a chip technology is complex, but, boiled down, it works like a Pentium computer chip, Landers said. Yet instead of electrons, fluid flows through the chip’s micro plumbing system.

For instance, a miniscule speck of blood is inserted into the glass chip, and as it is forced through threadlike channels, waste is extracted from the sample. In the end, a laser is used to pull the desired information (such as a killer’s genetic profile) from the sample.

Landers envisions using a device the size of a laptop, or eventually as small as a cell phone, into which the chip would be inserted and the sample processed.

The technology has worked in lab tests, according to a 2006 report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Landers and Hughes were among 11 authors of the report.

One test confirmed the presence of the bacteria that cause anthrax in a sample of mouse blood. Another test confirmed the presence of the bacteria that cause whooping cough in a sample from a human.

“We can do all this chemistry right in a glass chip,” Landers said in his office, tapping on a prototype.

Landers, who has been researching the technology since 1995 while at the Mayo Clinic, believes lab on a chip could eventually be used in many realms.

Wide range of uses

Along with possibly creating a “paradigm shift” in healthcare and criminal forensics, the technology could be used in agriculture, to check vegetables or meat for E. coli, for example, Landers said.

Matthew Begley, a professor of mechanical engineering who has been working on the project for three years, also sees wide-ranging prospects.

“James’ work could translate to an enormous variety of applications, in concept,” Begley said.

Perhaps one day, he said, lab-on-a-chip technology will make complex diagnoses as simple to complete as a modern-day pregnancy test.

Nevertheless, Landers realizes there is work to do and questions to answer. So does Begley.

‘New set of physics’

The concept for lab-on-a-chip is strong, as it is similar to microelectronics, such as used in cell phones, Begley said. But there is a “whole new set of physics with fluids in the miniaturization process,” which they have yet to figure out.

Landers said questions of affordability will have to be answered for lab-on-a-chip to be mass produced.

Also, there could be some resistance. Primary care doctors might see that the technology could make life easier for their patients, but some of them might not want the added responsibility of handling everything at the office, Landers said.

On the other hand, he said, there are those who are all for it. Regardless of the unknowns, Landers figures we’ll see the technology relatively soon.

“In less than five years,” he said, “this is going to be a reality.”