Tan Hui Leng
ANOTHER made-in-Singapore bird flu detection device has been announced: Claimed as able to identify the deadly H5N1 strain in less than 30 minutes, or 440 per cent faster than other commercially available tests.
The device, conceived at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research, can be used together with commercially available H5N1 kits.
"There is a difference between 'kits' and 'devices'," said research scientist Juergen Pipper, who headed the project. The invention was announced in the journal Nature Medicine.
"Kits contain biochemicals only (while) devices are hardware only. That means, kits alone are not enough; they have to be combined with devices to test for infectious diseases."
IBN's device works by testing genetic material obtained from a throat-swab of humans, and is described as a "lab-on-a-chip". Dr Pipper also said the device would be between "2,000 to 5,000 per cent cheaper" than commercially available kits.
Two other Singapore companies that has made news in the last few years for their rapid test kits include Veredus and Rockeby.
The significance of such products is that people can be screened quickly at points of outbreak and migratory checkpoints such as airports.
Endemic among poultry in the region, the H5N1 strain of bird flu has infected 328 humans worldwide, of whom 200 have died.
Health experts are worried that the virus would evolve into a strain that is transmissible from human to human, sparking a flu pandemic that would kill millions.
Beyond H5N1, the technique used in IBN's device can detect other viruses such as those causing Aids, Hepatitis B and Sars. It could take five to 10 years to commercialise the handheld device whose size and weight has been described as "comparable to that of a fine Japanese Fuji apple".
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