Until recently, we would have thought that a drop of blood on an electronic sensor could be used for the qualitative and quantitative diagnosis of diseases was science fiction. But two Latin American researchers have just been awarded the Innovation prize of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia for their work. We met both of them.
Mexican biomedical engineer Dr. Gabriela Figueroa Miranda and Colombian electrical engineer Dr. Viviana Rincón Montes have developed a biosensor at Forschungszentrum Jülich that can be used to diagnose malaria quickly and easily. We meet them for an interview as part of the “Pioneers from NRW” series. The platform technology that the scientists are now working to implement in medicine could one day also diagnose other diseases – with a chip, a drop of blood and so inexpensively that the technology will hopefully also be available in countries of the global South. An exciting shoot that leaves us in an optimistic mood in the days before Christmas.
