Mobile phone aid to medicine

Jul 23 2009 by Andrew Mernin, The Journal

RESEARCHERS have reportedly designed a mobile phone add-on that can take detailed images and analyse them to diagnose diseases such as tuberculosis.

The CellScope works as a so-called fluorescence microscope that can identify the markers of disease.

It is hoped the device will be useful in the developing world, where such medical diagnostics are rare but mobile ownership and coverage are common.

The CellScope is made up of conventional microscope optics as well as some equipment to make it function as a fluorescence microscope.

Fluorescence occurs when certain molecules are illuminated with a certain colour and “shine” for a period in a different colour.

Fluorescent “tagging” molecules can be specially designed to latch on to, for instance, the bacteria that are a sign of tuberculosis.

But diagnosing tuberculosis requires a fluorescence microscope, which can illuminate a blood sample that has been treated with “tagging” molecules and detect just the light that those molecules emit with great sensitivity.

However, typical fluorescence microscopes are bulky, expensive devices limited to hospitals and laboratories.

“There are other people who have been working on developing portable fluorescent microscopes,” said David Breslauer, a University of California Berkeley researcher and lead author of the study.

“The innovation on our front is that we’ve integrated that with a cell phone rather than just making a standalone microscope.”

The researchers used a standard Nokia handset with a 3.2 megapixel camera, developing a snap-on addition that includes the microscope optics and a holder for blood samples on glass slides.