Ymeti demonstrated during his doctoral research in 2007 that the principle behind the detector worked. At the time, he used a fairly sizeable laboratory set-up. The Ostendum company was subsequently founded, in 2008, in order to develop the principle into a marketable product.

This week, the company completed the first prototype of the device, and it is presently working on two others. The three prototypes are undergoing practical tests, in a collaboration involving the Laboratorium Microbiologie Twente Achterhoek and the Zwanenberg Food Group. Ostendum will then make further improvements to the design of the device on the basis of the test results, and expects to have the first device ready for introduction to the marketplace in late 2010.

How it works

The device consists of two parts: a lab-on-a-chip-system and a portable detector. A lab-on-a-chip is a miniature laboratory the size of a chip. The chip contains tiny channels that are coated with receptors. The blood or saliva sample is transported to the channels with the help of a fluid system. Substances from the saliva or blood can then bind with the receptors on the chip. Light from a laser is guided through the channels. If any of the substances binds with the receptors in any of the channels, this will alter the phase of the light. Such a change will manifest itself in the interference pattern, and is a fingerprint of any viruses present, for example, or biomarkers. The method is highly sensitive: it is possible to measure the binding of a single virus particle.

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