New HIV test ‘can be carried out using a USB stick’

A new type of HIV test incorporated into a USB stick has been developed by researchers from Imperial College London.

Partnering with DNA Electronics, the team created a device that uses a simple mobile phone chip to detect HIV in just a small sample of blood and can be read by any computer, laptop or handheld device.

If any HIV virus is present in the sample, a change in acidity is triggered that the chip then transforms into an electrical signal. This is sent to the USB stick, which produces the result in a programme on a computer or electronic device.

For this research, the device was used to test 991 blood samples, delivering 95 percent diagnostic accuracy, with the average time to produce a result calculated at just 20.8 minutes.

Currently, testing requires costly and complex equipment that can take days to produce a result. This USB system is much smaller and more convenient, potentially allowing it to be used at home or in remote areas.

Senior study author Dr Graham Cooke, from the department of medicine at Imperial College London, said: "We have taken the job done by this equipment, which is the size of a large photocopier, and shrunk it down to a USB chip."

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