Whipping Up A Diagnosis

摘要

Take a $2.50 hand-cranked eggbeater, remove one rotor, and you've got a centrifuge that can help health workers diagnose diseases in poor countries, Harvard University chemist George Whitesides and colleagues write in a paper published online this month in the journal Lab on a Chip. Some diagnostic tests-such as for hepatitis B-use plasma, the liquid component of blood. Plasma is usually prepared by removing cells from the blood in a centrifuge, but such machines are expensive and use electricity.