#MEMS: "Microfluidics detects cancer with nanotubes"

A Microfluidic device created by a pair of professors from MIT and Harvard Medical School uses an internal detector studded with tiny carbon nanotubes to detect individual cancer cells in blood samples containing billions of healthy cells. About the size of a dime, the microfluidic sensor can also be functionalized to detect viruses as small as 40 nanometers


Posts just 30 microns in diameter are fashioned from bundles of hollow carbon nanotubes that can trap individual cancer cells as they flow through a microfluidic cancer detetor.
Image Source: Brian Wardle/MIT.

MIT professor Brian Wardle and Harvard Medical School professor Mehmet Toner say the microfluidic device should enable low-cost tests for diagnoses in-the-field by untrained personnel.
Further Reading: http://bit.ly/NextGenLog-gWds