London: Scientists are coming up with a new Star Trek-style gadget to detect cancers and other diseases.
A portable biomarker detector being developed by a team at Yale University will be able to identify signs of illness from a sample of blood within 20 minutes.
According to the researchers, the device will come in a size of a paperback book and equipped with a nanosensor so accurate that it can pick up a grain of salt in a swimming pool.
"Doctors could have these small, portable devices in their offices and get nearly instant readings," the Telegraph quoted Dr Tarek Fahmy, a biomedical engineer at Yale University, as saying.
He added: "They could also carry them into the field and test patients on site."
Professor Mark Reed, co-author, added: "Nanosensors have been around for the past decade, but they only worked in controlled, laboratory settings.
"This is the first time we``ve been able to use them with whole blood, which is a complicated solution containing proteins and ions and other things that affect detection."
Seemingly, the device will be similar to Dr McCoy``s tricorder in Star Trek, which is used to scan living or nonliving matter to determine its molecular make-up.
ANI
