Could biosensor microchip revolutionise drug testing?

A biosensor microchip has been developed that has the potential to change the way drugs are tested.

Scientists from Stanford University created the microchip, which can analyse how drugs affect proteins in the body - as well as uncover potential side effects.

Noting that this laboratory product news could significantly speed up the process of testing medications, the team explain that the device is packed with nanosensors.

These can monitor thousands more proteins than existing sensors - as well as doing so with greater precision, the scientists highlight.

Leader of the research project Shan Wang, a professor of materials science and engineering and of electrical engineering, comments: "You can fit thousands, even tens of thousands, of different proteins of interest on the same chip and run the protein-binding experiments in one shot."

One colleague commented that the development has the potential to dramatically change the process of bioassays.

Recently, researchers from the University of York and Radboud University Nijmegen developed a way to speed up the data processing in laptop and desktop hard drives.

The team achieved this by augmenting the speed of magnetic reversal.