By: Sorab Ghaswalla
Oxford, April 24, 2015: Health apps and smart medical devices represent a very big segment in the Internet of Things (IoT). Soon, if a United Kingdom (UK) company with the rather unusual name of Oxford Nanopore has its way, the nascent world of the Internet of Living Things will see the entry of a rather “disruptive” technology adaptable for the analysis of DNA, RNA, proteins, small molecules and other types of molecule.
The miniature MinION can easily be plugged into a phone or laptop.
The company has created MinION, a device which is a small gene sequencer. This is an instrument that contains a proprietary sensor chip called the Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), and nanopores (tiny chips, which sit on a silicon chip, that can read what’s happening in the hole, by reading the flow of ions through it) that are needed to perform a complete single-molecule sensing experiment. MinION plugs directly into a laptop or desktop computer through a USB port. It’s basically a self-contained device to deliver real time data. A nanopore may be used to identify an analyte directly and electronically.
Now, according to a report in wired.co.uk. which quoted company Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Clive Brown, the £650 gene sequencer may soon be integrated into a mobile phone. He was speaking at WIRED Health 2015.
The move to integrate this gadget into mobile phones could usher in a new chapter in the IoT. Brown told the audience that the unit would be able to measure blood markers and collate that data to track changes in a person’s daily biology, for example.
Taking great pains to explain how the MinION worked, the CTO told the audience that as the ions moved through the hole in the nonopore, they generated an electronic signal characteristic of the DNA. This could then be read from a solution such as blood, and thus deliver real time DNA scanning in near real time.
Read the rest of the WIRED Health 2015 report in wired.co.uk.
In addition to that, the MinION device was adaptable for protein sensing and other nanopore sensing techniques. Currently, several hundred participants in the MinION Access programme (MAP) were working with the MinION system to explore how its features – including long read lengths, real time digital data, portability and compressed workflows – might help to answer a range of biological questions. The MAP initially focuses on DNA analysis.
Oxford Nanopore itself is focused on delivering what it calls “the simplest possible sample preparation and workflows.” Its technology is designed to process samples directly from the source; this could include blood or plasma, other bodily fluids (sometimes known as ‘liquid biopsy’), environmental samples such as swabs of hospital wards, transport networks, water networks or other public facilities. Because of its portablity, encouraging sampling from field locations such as rural clinics, farms, factories or other remote locations.
In fact, Metrichor, an Oxford Nanopore company, is a platform designed to help people analyse living things over time in any environment or location. It is a Cloud-based analytics platform, integrated with Nanopore sensing devices. Metrichor is designed to help people track, trend and predict biological data, and so to provide actionable information. Metrichor can tailor analytics services and customised devices for any applications, whether medical, factory, environmental or domestic.
Image Credit: Oxford Nanopore
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