Blood analysis chip could aid global health care

>> Kara Tsuboi: The AIDS Healthcare Foundation in San Francisco runs several dozen HIV tests every week.

>> Dale Gluth: The more we can automate the process, the better.

>> Kara Tsuboi: Dale Gluth, who's been involved with HIV prevention and testing for nearly two decades, would welcome new testing technology.

>> Dale Gluth: That technology would help us in terms of volume. It would probably eliminate some human error concerns.

>> Kara Tsuboi: That's what a group of researchers at the University of California-Berkeley are working on, with their new blood analysis chip. With one drop of blood, it can detect HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, and even some cancers -- all at the same time and even faster than ever before.

>> Ivan Dimov: We can detect this whole array of diseases within ten minutes. It's a very fast process and it's very sensitive.

>> Kara Tsuboi: The drop of blood then separates, and the plasma reacts with the biomarkers from specific diseases. If a disease is present, a signal will light up.

>> Kara Tsuboi: It's lightweight, it'd be easy to make since it's just plastic, and then so simple to ship to people around the world.

>> Ivan Dimov: In these developing countries, there is no centralized labs. There's very limited equipment, and in the remote areas, people just don't have access to that.

>> Dale Gluth: Having something like this would be great in terms of access and immediate diagnosis.

>> Kara Tsuboi: Researchers are already working on the next generation of the chip, where you could read the results with a cell phone, and are hoping to get FDA approval in the next two years. For CBS News, I'm Kara Tsuboi, CNET.com, in San Francisco.

==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====