Sam Sia and colleagues at Columbia University in New York coupled microfluidics with consumer electronics to create a smartphone app that simultaneously detects HIV and syphilis. The dongle, attaches to a smartphone by the headphone jack to perform a triplexed miniature immunoassay: HIV antibody, treponemal-specific antibody for syphilis and nontreponemal antibody for active syphilis infection. The test requires a single prick of blood and uses less than 4% of the smartphone battery. Healthcare workers in Rwanda tested 96 women at a clinic for preventing mother-child transmission. Using the app, workers obtained results in 15 minutes, with 92–100% sensitivity and 79–100% specificity. It costs $34 to manufacture the dongle, and $1.44 to run the test.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Smartphone HIV test. Nat Biotechnol 33, 221 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0315-221a
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0315-221a