Scientists Hack Cellphone to Detect Human Disease

LOS ANGELES — A new MacGyver-esque Cellphone hack could bring cheap, on-the-spot disease detection to even the most remote villages on the planet. Using only an LED, plastic light filter and some wires, scientists at UCLA’s California NanoSystems Institute have modded a cellphone into a portable blood tester capable of monitoring HIV, malaria, leukemia and detecting diseases.

Blood tests today require either refrigerator-sized machines that cost tens of thousands of dollars or a trained technician who manually identifies and counts cells under a microscope. These systems are slow, expensive and require dedicated labs to function. And soon they could be a thing of the past.

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