Nanosensors that detect heart attacks before they happen could save both lives and money.
That is exactly what Eric Topol, MD, at San Diego–based Scripps Health has been working on with Axel Scherer, PhD, of Caltech. Their technology involves tiny blood stream nanosensor chips that might sense the precursor of a heart attack. A person with such a tiny chip might get a warning on their smartphone or other wireless device that they should immediately see their cardiologist.
The latest versions of the chip measure 90 microns—much smaller than a grain of sand. A doctor or nurse might inject the nanosensor into a patient's arm, where it would flow down to the distal tip of the finger and embed itself, screening the blood for endothelial cells that are sloughed off an artery wall in a precursory period preceding a heart attack.
The sensors are now being used for glucose detection in animal studies. Human trials should follow thereafter.
The combination of a nanosensor and coupled smartphone could be used be used to track autoimmune disease and cancer. It could also be used to screen for rejection in patients with organ transplants. In this application, thenanosensor could be calibrated to detect the donor organ DNA in the blood, which would begin showing up in the blood as an early sign of rejection.
That is exactly what Eric Topol, MD, at San Diego–based Scripps Health has been working on with Axel Scherer, PhD, of Caltech. Their technology involves tiny blood stream nanosensor chips that might sense the precursor of a heart attack. A person with such a tiny chip might get a warning on their smartphone or other wireless device that they should immediately see their cardiologist.
The latest versions of the chip measure 90 microns—much smaller than a grain of sand. A doctor or nurse might inject the nanosensor into a patient's arm, where it would flow down to the distal tip of the finger and embed itself, screening the blood for endothelial cells that are sloughed off an artery wall in a precursory period preceding a heart attack.
The sensors are now being used for glucose detection in animal studies. Human trials should follow thereafter.
The combination of a nanosensor and coupled smartphone could be used be used to track autoimmune disease and cancer. It could also be used to screen for rejection in patients with organ transplants. In this application, thenanosensor could be calibrated to detect the donor organ DNA in the blood, which would begin showing up in the blood as an early sign of rejection.
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