Here First - Science and Technology Blog

Columbia University men of science have developed a $1 plastic chip that can diagnose HIV and syphilis in 15 minutes. The chip named the "mChip", a credit-card-sized piece of plastic that is made applying a plastic injection molding process, examinations for multiple diseases with just one pinprick of blood. Nothing moves inside the chip, and the microfluidics-based chip can be examined with assist from a cheap visual sensor. Concording to results issued this week in Nature Medicine, the chip detects 100% of cases when utilized to test HIV or syphilis and human immunodeficiency virus together, with a 4% to 6% false positive rate. That's same to what is ascertained with common laboratory exams in the developed world. An mChip that can diagnose prostatic adenocarcinoma has already been authorized for use in Europe. In the future, Columbia investigator Samuel K. Sia trusts to practice the chip to examine pregnant women in Rwanda for HIV and other STDs. Numerous of...

After many efforts to produce vaginal creams that can stop HIV the scientists are finally testing if a medicament practiced to treat HIV contagion at last could give women a tool to prevent it -- by impregnating the medicine into vaginal gels and contraceptive-style rings. Addressed microbicides, this sort of woman-controlled protection is believed to be the key for combating the HIV plaguey -- particularly in evolving nations where the virus crushes its worst and adult female too frequently can not convince their sexual partners to utilise a rubber. "Frankly, blocking transmission of the virus appears to be a lot harder than anyone understood it would be at the beginning," alleges meeting co-chair Dr. Sharon Hillier of the University of Pittsburgh and a PI of the Microbicide Trials Network. "The reason we're not depressed in the microbicide world? We actually have learned a lot and moved on to think about potent drugs and really cool delivery methods." ...