Remember the project where University of Sidney scientists used 3D printing to transform a smartphone into a dual spectrometer? Now, a team of scientists from various universities and bioengineering research institutions in California went even further by using CAD software and FDM 3D printing (with a Dimension Elite 3D printer from Stratasys) to transform a smartphone (in this case a Nokia Lumia 1020 with a 41 megapixel photo camera) into a device capable of detecting single molecules of DNA.
In the study, which was published on ACS Publications, the scientists demonstrated “imaging and length quantification of single molecule DNA strands using a compact, lightweight and cost-effective fluores- cence microscope installed on a mobile phone.” This basic optical microsocope relies on a 3D printed optomechanical attachment that “creates a high contrast dark-field imaging setup using an external lens, thin-film interference filters, a miniature dovetail stage and a laser-diode for oblique-angle excitation.”
At the same time, the researchers created a computational framework and connected mobile phone application for measurements of the lengths of individual DNA molecules, with an accuracy of less than 1 kilobase-pairs (kbp) for every 10 kbp and longer strands. A base pair is a unit of measure for DNA, which represents the bond between pairs of bases (guanine-cytosine or adenine-thymine).
Imaging of single DNA molecules has been of particular interest as various diseases including cancer and neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease, are associated with genomic alterations, including, for example, copy-number variations (CNVs). Such a simple, field-portable and cost-effective microscopy device can be used in various clinical applications, like the detection of certain cancers (e.g., stomach, brain, etc.), nervous system disorders, or even drug resistance in infectious diseases. Furthermore, by collecting and mapping the integrated spatiotemporal data, it can provide support to health-care professionals, epidemiologists, and policy makers in tracking emerging trends and gain a better understanding of cause-effect relationships.
The extreme sensitivity of the sensors and lenses on modern smartphones, in particular the Lumia 1020, are proving ideal for an ever growing number of medical and scientific applications. While the technology is important, it is often through 3D printed accessories that scientific teams are able to make the best intended use of these powerful portable computers, so that one Start Trek dream, the replicator, is helping another one, the tricorder, get closer to reality.
This is an amazing invention. It does, however, feel like one day (soon?) we will get to the stage where the use of 3d printing is so commonplace that headlines like this are like saying Company X uses CNC Lathe to make New Invention Y better/faster/cheaper than they could have using a conventional lathe.
I’m too young to remember cnclatheindustry.com but do new technologies go through defined stages of evolution where one day its big news if someone uses it and the next day every business has an old 3d printer in the corner but no one has a USB stick to put in it or a Windows8 pc to run it because they’re all doing 4d MagicFromThinAiring?
Where is 3d printing on the technology life line?
Star Trek Tricorder in the making!