As technology is ever advancing, we are lucky enough to see a huge array of improvements made in a whole range of industries, but most importantly, the medical field.
As for what we are referring to today, a team of researchers have successfully been testing a new ultrasensitive diagnostic device that could allow doctors to detect cancer quickly and effectively from just a droplet of blood or plasma.
As reported in Nature Biomedical Engineering, the “lab-on-a-chip” for liquid biopsy analysis detects exosomes that are tiny packages of biological information that tumour cells produce in order to stimulate their growth. These exosomes were previously kind of ignored by scientists as the contents of them were often thought of as almost waste products. However, in the last decade or two researchers have found that the information within them can potentially inform experts on many biological functions that are taking place within the individual, such as whether they have cancer or not.
Having said all of this, the device is still in its early days, therefore it will likely be a little while until researchers and confident enough to roll out the tech into the whole medical field
