London: Scientists have developed a device that can be used to detect whether someone is driving under the influence of drugs through sweat pores in the fingertips.
The device applies gold nanoparticles coated with antibodies to a fingerprint, so that antibodies stick to antigens on specific metabolites.
Fluorescent dyes attached to the antibodies then highlight the presence of any metabolites, reports New Scientist.
The technique was first used to detect nicotine, but now works on a range of drugs, including cocaine, methadone and cannabis.
The new device could detect nanograms of metabolites in minutes, said Paul Yates from Intelligent Fingerprinting.
The device was announced at the UCL International Crime Science Conference in London last week.
ANI
First Published: Monday, July 25, 2011, 16:04