A mobile phone 'case' has been used to detect cancer-related mutations in DNA for the first time. Using a microscope attached to a mobile phone it was possible for molecular scientists to diagnose problems with tumours.
In a study published in Nature Communications, a team of researchers explain how a 3D-printed camera attachment was used to analyse DNA and cell mutations.
The team of international biologists behind the work said it involved "next-generation" DNA sequencing and called it a "new milestone for mobile-phone-based biomolecular analysis and diagnostics".
"We sequenced DNA for the first time using a mobile phone to record the sequencing reaction," Mats Nilsson, a molecular diagnostics researcher from Stockholm University and Uppsala University who worked on the paper, told WIRED. "We used that to detect a point mutation in a gene in several samples of tumour tissues."
The camera imaged six colon cancer tumour samples and was able to match the results of traditional clinical genome sequencing 100 per cent of the time. The device was able to detect cancer-related DNA sequences using probes labelled with a fluorescent compound. When the compounds match with the DNA sequences, a fluorescent signal that the phone's camera is able to detect is emitted.
This means, according to the research paper, the device can be used to genotype cancer patient biopsies directly in situ. The camera was used to analyse cells and tissues that had been removed from the human body and preserved for study. Tests were conducted in secured chambers in a lab.
"It could enable molecular diagnostics in the field, to detect mutations conferring resistance to anticancer and antibacterial drugs, and to detect virus/bacteria," Nilsson explains.
"It adds molecular diagnostics to the range of applications." Allowing molecular diagnostic tests at a location, rather than in a central laboratory could allow for results to be obtained faster.
Nillsson and colleagues plan to continue to develop the 3D-printed device to make it more autonomous and introduce antibiotic resistance profiling for TB infections, and Ebola virus detection.