– Less than 10 US cents a test –
“This system can be built at a very low cost, relative to the million-dollar MRI machines used in a hospital,” said Weng Kung Peng, a research scientist at SMART.
“Furthermore, since this technique does not rely on expensive labelling with chemical reagents, we are able to get each diagnostic test done at a cost of less than 10 [US] cents (7.5 cents of a euro).”
Preliminary work has found that an MRR system could be built for less than $2,000 (1,500 euros), the paper said.
The team is running field tests in Southeast Asia and already looking at potential enhancements to the prototype.
It is working on portable version “about the size of a small electronic tablet” and exploring the possibility of using solar energy as a power source, MIT said.
This would be a boon for sub-Saharan Africa, which accounts for most of the world’s malaria fatalities.
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