Mobile phone microscope being tested in India, Vietnam and Nepal
14-Dec-14, The Times Of India
At a time when various governments are trying to bring down the diagnostic cost of disease like tuberculosis, a cheap tool is being designed at Prof Dan Fletcher's bioengineering lab at UC Berkeley (US), by a team of scientists including Lina Nelsson. The device is actually a mobile phone, which takes the sample and sends it for testing and gets the results back to the person. The portable device is being tested in countries like Vietnam, Nepal and also India.
Lina Nelsson spoke about the project which has the potential to change the diagnostic world around the globe and save millions of lives. "There is the need for high-quality, low-cost imaging of disease samples in an area scarce in resources. CellScope, a mobile phone based microscope, will open up new opportunities for diagnosis of tuberculosis, malaria and other diseases that rely on optical microscopy for primary screening," Lina said.