Paper-based diagnostics are not that new. Dipstick assays and lateral flow tests, like home pregnancy tests, date back to the 1960s and 1970s. Yet there was never a broad proliferation of the technology to encompass a multitude of clinical applications. While there has always been hope that paper-based products’ ease of use, rapid time to results, and low cost would make them prime targets to increase the accessibility of medical care, particularly in resource-limited settings, the reality is that diagnostics manufacturers have not pursued the strategy. “The principles today are the same, but what’s changed is that we’ve refined more ways to detect more things,” says Andrew Warren, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) graduate student and lead author of a recent paper on the development of a paper-based diagnostic for cancer. “Today we have expanded our thoughts as to what else it is useful for and moved beyond a binary yes/no. With nanotechnology we have a good sense of how to do this in a robust manner.” There has been a resurgence of interest in paper-based diagnostics resulting from advances in the technology led by renowned chemist George Whitesides’ group at Harvard University. Patterning paper can be fabricated in […]