For those of us who have food allergies, or even sensitivities, any new food or prepared dish holds a level of risk, but current testing is bulky, lab-based and for professionals only. A new device may be able to simplify the testing process with similar sensitivity, broadening usage to restaurant, facility or home settings. UCLA’s Aydogan Ozcan and a research team has developed a much shorter testing process using an attachment to an iPhone that runs the same test that a lab would. As developed, it takes about 20 minutes to process the food into a test tube sample, which is then analyzed by the iTube attachment using its camera and a smartphone app that runs an allergen-concentration test known as a colorimetric assay. The team’s study was published in Lab on a Chip (abstract). Ozcan also recently developed the iPhone based LUCAS miniature microscope which can detect E.coli [TA 2 March]. Got Food Allergies? You Can Now Test Your Meal On the Spot Using a Cell Phone (Science Daily)
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