$20 reusable chip detects type-1 diabetes quickly and cheaply

Researchers from Stanford University have developed a microchip that could make it much less costly to diagnose type-1 diabetes. The debilitating disease often strikes children, and the quicker it’s detected, the easier it is to treat. The current test, however, is a time-consuming, costly burden for both hospitals and patients, requiring radioactive materials and several days of time. The new chip uses gold nanoparticles that cause fluorescent materials to glow when telltale antibodies are detected. Unlike the old tests, only a pinprick of blood is required, and the $20 chip can be reused up to 15 times

 

Engadget

The Surprising Evolution of Sex Determination

A core set of genes on the Y chromosome has been retained through much of animal evolution, not just for male sexual development, but also as regulatory genes in a wide array of tissues, according to twostudies published today (April 23) in Nature. Previous research has shown that the Y chromosome has undergone dramatic gene loss, retaining only 3 percent of its ancestral genes, compared to 98 percent for the X chromosome. Two independent teams—one led by David Page at MIT, the other byHenrik Kaessmann and Diego Cortez at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland—studied a wide variety of animals to demonstrate that the Y chromosome eventually developed a stable set of genes.

The Scientist