New Faster, Cheaper, Better Test Platform for Nucleic Acid Identification of Diseases

At the National University of Singapore, scientists have developed a portable, point-of-care nucleic acid test platform that can be used to diagnose a variety of diseases. It comes in the form of a cartridge that does not need to be kept refrigerated or handled specially in any other way and once used it provides results faster than existing methods. Called enVision (enzyme-assisted nanocomplexes for visual identification of nucleic acids), the testing device has everything needed to perform the test and does not require any external heating elements or pumps, so can be used at the point of care. “Conventional technologies – such as tests that rely on polymerase chain reaction to amplify and detect specific DNA molecules – require bulky and expensive equipment, as well as trained personnel to operate these machines.