IBM Research has demonstrated a lab-on-a-chip technology that can perform instant point-of-care tests for avian flu, swine flu, breast cancer, prostate cancer, bacterial infections, poison, toxins and more—even whether you have just experienced a heart attack.

Within two years, IBM claims its lab-on-a-chip technology could become as commonplace as off-the-shelf pregnancy tests, allowing anyone to perform instant, inexpensive tests for medical conditions that today take skilled personnel hours to perform. The IBM lab-on-a-chip test returns "yes" or "no" results from a pin prick of blood in just a few minutes.

"We envision many convenient form factors," said Luc Gervais, the scientist who co-developed the lab-on-a-chip at IBM Research (Zurich). "A finger prick can be built into a device that looks like a pen or a credit card."

IBM has spent three years on the project, which has gone through 30 iterations to achieve the current prototype that proves its concept works. Now the lab-on-a-chip technology will be developed into commercial point-of-care products by IBM's partners already in the medical supply business.

"This microfluidic chip is the next step in the evolution of point-of-care devices. We look forward to working with the scientists at IBM Research, Zurich, to develop this innovation even further," said Thierry Leclipteux, CEO and chief science officer of Coris BioConcept, the first company to reveal that it has licensed the technology from IBM for commercialization.

IBM's lab-on-a-chip leverages IBM's expertise in silicon chip fabrication, surface chemistry and nanotechnology to effectively sandwich a complete medical lab into a handheld, disposable device. IBM's lab-on-a-chip is a quick-acting biosensor that requires only a pin prick's worth of blood to trigger a cascade of events in a device powered by the same capillary forces that make paper towels absorbent.

"You can perform the whole process in just few minutes at the bedside of a patient, or anywhere really—even on airplanes before they land," said Gervais.

The amount of blood required is about 50 times smaller than a tear drop, unlike traditional medical tests, which require skilled personnel to use a needle to extract 2,000 times more blood than is required by IBM's lab-on-a-chip. Once the blood is deposited onto the lab-on-a-chip, it is inserted into standard fluorescence readers, which are already widely available in medical facilities. There, an LED illuminates the sample and any detected fluorescence is measured by a CCD camera, the intensity of which corresponds to the concentration of the substance under test.

Read the details in the December issue of Lab Chip magazine.