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-a conference sponsored by CIC microGUNE today discussed the potential impact of the diagnostic devices faster in developing countries in Madrid

-devices “ lab on a chip ” are able to diagnose infectious diseases in a few minutes with low cost and great portability

-infectious diseases as malaria, pneumonia and AIDS cause millions of deaths a year in Africa

Madrid, April 2010- the latest advances in Microtechnologies not only serve to increase the quality of life of the inhabitants of the developed countries. They can also be very useful to improve the conditions of people living in developing countries. Under the title “ the exploitation of lab on a chip for emerging and developing ”, CIC microGUNE sponsors a Conference which will discuss today April 30 in Madrid the potential impact of this new technology, that allows to incorporate elements of a laboratory in a tiny chip, to the most disadvantaged areas of the planet.

The Congress, to be held at the Universidad Complutense of Madrid under the direction of the researcher of CIC microGUNE Ruano Jesus, is framed in the European project Labonfoil, with a budget of EUR 7 million and coordinated by the Basque Centre. The program includes presentations carried out by those responsible for some of the leading companies working in the field of Microtechnologies, Philips, Futaba, Yole, Biotools or Mondragon Corporation, as well as centers of research such as the London International Development Centre (LIDC), the Finnish VTT Technical Research Centre, the Molecular Biology Institute of Paraná (Brazil) or own CIC microGUNE.

The Congress is based on reflection that access to adequate diagnostic tools is an essential step in the path towards an improvement of the health on a global scale. With current technology, devices based on Microtechnologies, they can offer a diagnosis in just a few minutes with a sample of saliva or blood, constitute an alternative to low cost and portable with great potential in countries with low purchasing power, poor health infrastructure and great health needs.

Scientists believe that the diagnosis is crucial in order to determine who should receive a specific treatment and that it is also suitable. Current diagnostic tools aren’t appropriate for countries developing, since they are very expensive, require a health infrastructure in many cases non-existent and need qualified staff. In addition, not to offer a reliable diagnosis, treatment of certain diseases, such as the infectious, costs soar, that you choose to treat patient groups with a dubious diagnosis.

However, there are still many barriers to ensure that these technologies can impact on a large scale in the disadvantaged countries. One of the main objectives of the Symposium is precisely to identify these barriers and to establish a framework for future developments. Some organizations, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, work already, through the Grand Challenges for Global Health, in projects that encourage r & d to tackle health problems in the third world. For example, work on a device about the size of a credit card capable of performing up to 20 tests at the same time from a small sample of blood.

The microdispositivos of rapid diagnosis can be particularly useful and effective in diagnosing infectious diseases that pose a major health problem in developing countries. In fact, pneumonia is 21 per cent of all child deaths in Africa and 19 per cent in South-East Asia, malaria causes more than one million deaths each year in poor countries, and 20 per cent of pregnant women in many countries of sub-Saharan Africa are infected with HIV.

Rapid diagnosis, the bet of CIC microGUNE

In this line of research on rapid diagnosis is precisely works CIC microGUNE: developing devices to detect pathologies at the time and in any environment of patient care. Therefore, CIC microGUNE focuses on the development of devices capable of diagnoses by analysis biomolecular in a quick way of very small, low cost, disposable size.

It is the objective of the European project Labonfoil, led by CIC microGUNE through its unit of microfluidics in Ikerlan-IK4 and framed this Congress. In their previous meeting, held last year in London, experts in Microtechnologies discussed the future of devices for quick diagnosis in the advanced countries.

In addition to Labonfoil, CIC microGUNE also develops projects in the field of health, as a micropipette to improve the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, a device to detect salmonella in foods, a device that controls the optimum stage of a body before her transplant and tissue engineering to produce live patches that fix lesions in vital organs.

CIC microGUNE stems from a strategic alliance between the research centres Ceit-IK4, Ikerlan-IK4 and Tekniker-IK4, Mondragon Unibertsitatea and Tecnun, universities with the collaboration of the Belgian IMEC Research Centre and supported by the Group of Mondragón, for research and technological development in micro- and nanotechnologies.