George Whitesides: Paper Lab-on-Chip

There's been some buzz lately about a TED Talk that George Whitesides, a Harvard chemistry professor, gave about a novel idea for a cheap, mass-producible diagnostic lab-on-chip.

I've written a numerous times about lab-on-chip devices, most of which involve various microchannels and reservoirs etched into a credit-card size piece of plastic. Whitesides, however, accomplishes the same goal using something similar to your everyday coffee filter.

You'll need to watch the TED Talk so Dr. Whitesides can explain the concept, but basically, you place a specific reagent on one end of the channel (the "solute"), and at the other end, apply the sample to be tested (saliva, urine, blood, etc.). The sample (the "solvent") moves up the channel through capillary action and when it hits the solute, will react with it and turn a certain color that can indicate a positive/negative result, or indicate the severity of a disease. If a doctor is unable to make a diagnosis on site, a picture can be taken and emailed to a physician.

I absolutely love this concept. Though Whitesides is a chemist by profession, such a unique idea is really what engineering is all about. He can reduce the solution to something that is simple, fast, and affordable.

In addition to his TED Talk, you might want to check out coverage from CNN and Popular Science. Also be sure to check out a post I wrote in November about a UC Irvine professor's novel solution for producing lab-on-chip devices.

TED Talks Offer a Brief Glimpse Into the Future of Medicine

The TED Conference is probably my favorite conference that I've never attended. What is so unique about it is wide range of ideas shared. While the title of this post only mentions medicine, TED also includes musical performances, talks on science, society, and anything innovative. The talks are no more than 20 minutes and are geared towards anyone who's interested.

Today, I watched a TED Talk on regenerative medicine given by a surgeon at Wake Forest University. Not only did it effectively sum up one of my courses I took on tissue engineering, but it also contained many pictures and video clips to show off the new body parts at work. Absolutely fascinating!

The TED website has many other talks that you can watch for free. Here's some that I've watched that pertain especially to biomedical engineering:

"Anthony Atala on growing new organs" - Dr. Atala of Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine explains the breakthroughs his team has made in creating replacement organs, and gives a brief explanation on how it's done.

"Catherine Mohr: Surgery's past, present and robotic future" - Dr. Mohr explains the evolution of surgery and how robotics make surgical procedures faster and safer (see previous post about Intuitive Surgical for an example).

"Robert Fischell on medical inventing" - This talk was actually an acceptance speech given by Dr. Fischell for the TED Prize, a prize given to a leader and visionary in his/her field. Dr. Fischell is a legendary medical device inventor, and in this video, he makes three wishes related to the field of medicine.

"Dean Kamen previews a new prosthetic arm" - The inventor of the Segway previews an advanced prosthetic arm he's been developing. (Also see related post on prosthetic limbs).

"Mark Humayun: Restoring Sight to the Blind" - I couldn't post a medical device entry without a clip from the very first TEDx conference at my alma mater, appropriately called TEDxUSC. In this TED Talk, Dr. Humayun explains how he is developing a retinal prosthesis to help the blind see (See related posts here and here)

If you're near a location that will be hosting a TEDx event, I highly recommend that you attend. These speakers all have amazing talks on a variety of interesting subjects. My favorite one involves David Blaine and a lot of water.