A full page of the topic “Focus on Biotechnology News” was recently published in Science and reported on a revolutionary lab-on-a-chip LOAC EFADchip technology that aims to change the existing clinical practice. Diagnostic mode. Its appearance will make Hong Kong a place in the international biotechnology field.

Bernard Reitzman, a virologist at the University of Illinois in Illinois, points out: "The EFADchip system is a small, yet efficient, mobile lab."

Future medical labs don't need roundabout windows and doors, and there aren't all sorts of people going in and out. Because the EFADchip is so small, it is like a credit card and can be stuffed into your trouser pocket. The tests it performs have required a few hundred square meters of laboratory space in the past.

These biochips, also known as lab-on-a-chips, make new personalized treatments possible, and are therefore considered the most promising development of medical diagnostics. Soon, traditional experiments can be accessed directly from the large central laboratory into the doctor's office and completed within minutes, helping to find the best way to treat each patient.

EFADchip speed wins

The main clinical diagnostic methods are physiological and biochemical and immunological reaction detection methods, but these methods have low sensitivity, long window period, long detection time, often show obvious specificity after onset, and the diagnostic accuracy is relatively low. In recent years, PCR-based detection methods have gradually begun to be applied in clinical applications, which greatly improves the sensitivity of detection. However, the PCR method still has a high false-positive rate, and it is difficult for operators and the environment to operate. The detection of flux, therefore, the PCR method has not yet become the mainstream method of the diagnostic platform.

With its unique patented technology, the EFADchip system developed by Hai Kang Life can highly integrate a set of inspection experiments such as sample hybridization, signal collection, and processing into a single small chip, enabling the entire testing process. Can be done on one instrument.

Therefore, the presence of pathogen gene segments can be detected in a very short time and with higher accuracy than other existing methods. Because the Electric Field Assisted Diagnostic EFAD technology is not expensive, it allows it to screen the entire population at risk. For example, after someone develops flu-like symptoms, this technique can be used to simultaneously detect the presence of multiple possible viruses, including H1N1 or SARS.

This screening can enable accurate diagnosis of the disease so that the patient can then be appropriately treated accordingly. Zhan Zhengping, a clinical pathologist at the National Institutes of Health in the United States, pointed out: "EFADchip and its companion chip detector are unique systems that allow you to get the results you need at a much faster rate than other technologies."

Low-cost applicable primary care

Grassroots is a problem that plagues the countries of the world. After all, medical resources are always limited.

In the world, a large proportion of people live in remote rural areas, and this level of medical care is generally low due to lack of funds. Therefore, diagnostic techniques cannot only develop towards high, precise, and sharp levels, but also develop suitable for this. Some medical-grade diagnostic techniques developed in accordance with WHO's "ASSURED (Affordable, Specific, Specific, User-friendly, Rapid and Robust, Equipment-free and Deliverable; Low Cost, High Sensitivity, High Specificity, Simple Operation, Fast, No Expensive The instrument, easy to move) "standard diagnostics.

The barriers that have hindered widespread use of gene chips in clinics include: First, the control of nucleic acid hybridization processes; Second, the capture and analysis of detection signals. Today's gene chips either require expensive metal materials as hybridization media or require costly fluorescence microscopy and analysis equipment to achieve signal capture, which is not conducive to the widespread use of gene chips in clinical and grassroots applications.

The new EFADchip system consists of a chip and a bio-reader that can be easily deployed in remote rural areas that do not have laboratory conditions. In fact, the EFADchip system is small enough to be placed directly on the desk of any doctor. The timely deployment of the system in epidemic outbreaks will prevent the epidemic from becoming a global pandemic.