A San Diego biotech company announced that they have developed the world's first molecular microchip.
According to KGTV, it's a semiconductor chip smaller than a fingernail that has the ability to grab an individual molecule and read it.
Roswell Biotechnologies founder and CEO Paul Mola says the microchip could dramatically change how the industry detects diseases, develops drugs, and monitors health.
“What we are trying to do at Roswell is digitize biology,” Mola told KGTV. “To provide almost real-time access to biological information to inform decisions about our well-being.”
The Sorrento Valley-based company revealed their semiconductor chip with 16,000 sensors and each one can latch onto a single molecule like a protein from a virus or an enzyme that decodes DNA.
Once it's attached, the chip can read the molecule through changes in electrical current.
Mola said the goal is to put a small amount of saliva on the chip and run diagnostic tests for COVID-19, the flu, and thousands of other pathogens.
“We want to move testing away from the clinic, closer to the community and eventually into the home,” he continued. “You don’t have to wait to get sick to be tested. But you can test every day, for everything, everywhere. And that’s how we’re going to stop future pandemics.”
The company, which currently has 50 employees, is backed by scientists at Harvard, UCLA, and UC San Diego.