Innovation In CMOS Bio-Optical Sensors Enables Portable Diagnostics

By Zhimin Ding, Anitoa Systems, LLC

In the past 10+ years we have seen great progress in molecular diagnostic technologies. Doctors can now take advantage of the emerging nucleic acid (DNA) or protein analysis techniques (e.g. qPCR, microarrays, and sequencing) to get very precise answers about the type of virus, bacteria, or cancerous cells that cause illnesses. This is great news, as the world is facing a new wave of threats — especially microbial threats such as drug-resistant TB, MRSA, hepatitis, HIV, etc. Precise diagnostics leads to effective, targeted drugs and treatments to help counter these threats.