At the Nanoelectronics and MEMS lab at the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec), a research team has made efforts to develop what they call "lab on a chip". Analysis processes normally done in the lab can be conducted on a chip.

Lab on a chip is a concept that puts the lab's analysis processes into a single chip, allowing experts to analyse, for example, a patient's blood or DNA easily and quickly. This technology is expected to be the future of analysis processes in medical circles.

The lab's researcher Adisorn Tuantranont said that the team was developing a new kind of lab which will change the face of analysis procedures, making them easier and faster.

As analysis procedures in a laboratory take time and involve heavy expenses, Adisorn said lab on a chip would be an answer to help experts do disease analysis at a lower cost. Lab on a chip downsizes the required analysis process onto a single chip. Once everything is done on a smaller scale, a tiny sample and fewer chemical substances for an analysis process are needed, thus making the outcome faster and cheaper. With this small chip, experts can take the lab anywhere with them to conduct an analysis.

To develop this chip, Adisorn said the team adopted Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) as a key technology. MEMS is a technology that combines computers with tiny mechanical devices such as sensors, valves, gears, mirrors and actuators embedded in semiconductor chips. This technology helps researchers to build tiny analysis processes on a chip with the so-called micro-fluidic system.

The micro-fluidic system is a structure fabricated in silicon, glass, or polymer on a chip. It allows samples of liquids like blood or gas to flow through a step-by-step analysis process on the chip and eventually give an outcome.

Adisorn said the team now had the basic knowledge to develop the lab on a chip and aims to bring down the development costs.

"We now use polymer to develop the chip but the cost is still high. We're in the process of using plastic as a key material when developing the chip," he said.

He added that the team had worked with local universities to develop a chip for practical use. It has collaborated with Prince of Songkla University to develop a chip to analyse urine.

Using the chip, he said, would offer greater convenience to analysis experts, as the process was quite simple. Just put the urine sample on the chip and the chip itself will automatically run the analysis process and give the result in 10 minutes.

"In the test we found that the accuracy of the result is the same as the existing analysis machine while the result came out much faster," he said.

Meanwhile, the team is working with Mahidol University to develop a chip to analyse cholera bacteria in food. Adisorn said the team would develop an analysis process to put into the chip while the university would take the cholera extract for analysis. The project starts this year and a prototype of lab on a chip for cholera is likely to be available by the end of next year.

Lab on a chip is expected to grow fast as it will simplify disease analysis at a lower cost.

It's expected that this kind of chip will be more popular in the near future.

There are many companies developing lab on a chip for commercial purposes. Adisorn said if Thailand wanted to step up in this area and be more self-reliant, it should develop its own technology for local use.

"As commercial lab on a chip products are for general purposes, I think that we should develop something that is more specific, or in a niche," he said.

He added that Thailand needed to develop the chip to analyse tropical diseases like malaria, cholera, bird flu, Sars, thalassemia or hepatitis C, areas that other commercial products did not focus on.

pongpen@nationgroup.com

Pongpen Sutharoj

The Nation