Nanodevice used to detect response to therapeutics

Roche has helped develop a nanomechanical sensing device that can be used to detect a person's response to drug therapy. The device relies on sensors attached to silicon cantilevers 450 nanometers thick to detect gene activity. Researchers at the Swiss Nanoscience Institute who created the device say that it can open a diagnostic window that will better allow them to design personalized therapies for individual patients. They estimate it will take another five years for the technology to become more widely available.

"Our research results show that these new nanomechanical sensors can be used for the direct and continuous monitoring of patients' response to a given treatment," says Ulrich Certa, Head of Functional Genomics at the Roche Centre for Medical Genomics. "This promising new technology takes us a step nearer to tailoring treatment directly to patients' needs, hopefully with ever fewer adverse effects."

- read the report from NZZ Online

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