The International Business Machines Corporation - IBM, made known a lab-on-a-chip device technology that can separate biological particles at the nanoscale and could help physicians to detect diseases such as cancer before symptoms appear.
The results of the IBM team show size-based separation of bioparticles down to 20 nanometers in diameter, a scale that gives a means of approach to important particles such as Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), viruses and exosomes.
Once these particles are separated, physicians can analyze it and can potentially reveal signs of disease, even before patients experience any physical symptoms and when the end result of treatment is most positive, according to PR News Wire.
IBM, which is an American multinational technology corporation, is collaborating with a team from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Their collaboration will continue to develop this lab-on-a-chip technology and they plan to test it for prostate cancer - which is the most common cancer in men in the United States.
However, the computer hardware company stated that it's pretty early in the research, where they need more time to figure out if the lab-on-a-chip device could feasibly and reliably be utilized to analyze fluids.
If the result of the research will be positive, it could lead to more affordable, compact methods of identifying illnesses and they can possibly provide an in-home devices for self-monitoring, Engadget reported.
As IBM has been able to categorize particles down to 20 nanometers, IBM researcher Joshua Smith stated that they are talking about separating biological entities. And to their knowledge, it's the largest particle that's been separated, according to Fast Company.
Lab-on-a-chip technologies have become an awesome tool for physicians as the technology is significantly faster, portable and easy to use. And the technology requires less sample volume to help detect diseases, as the goal is to decrease to a single silicon chip all of the processes necessary to examine methodically a disease.
Watch The Video For IBM Upgrading Cancer Care:
