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It's nicknamed lab-in-a-box — a portable one-stop-shop for genetic testing.

“We have the ability to implement a tremendously wide range of tests on a standard platform and do it quickly and inexpensively,” said Chris Backhouse, a professor at the University of Alberta's electrical and computer engineering department.

“The key to this is to integrate, shrink and automate.”

Backhouse, oncology professor Linda Pilarski and others at the university have developed a $1,000 shoebox-sized device that can carry out genetic tests and deliver results in under half an hour.

It has received international acclaim and has been written up this month in The Analyst, a scientific journal published by the U.K.-based Royal Society of Chemistry. The royal society publication Chemical Science has heralded the device as being on the leading edge of combining nano- and bio-technology.

Backhouse says the device has the potential to revolutionize front-line health care, given that genetic testing to date has been hampered by high capital and labour costs that put tests into the thousands of dollars.

The system centres around a new microchip developed at the university's micro and nano fabrication facility. The chip can work with mere molecules of a sample and combine them with other electronics to perform an analysis in 25 minutes.

Tiny channels, valves and reaction chambers are embedded on the chip to perform tests that are analyzed by an optical assembly that includes a laser diode and a camera. The device is just as accurate as equipment currently used for standard genetic testing, said Backhouse.

“The parallel with the computer industry is overwhelming,” said Backhouse, referring to how speed and miniaturization made computer technology universally accessible.

The impact on a doctor's office could be significant, eliminating guesswork when diagnosing a coughing, headachy patient to determine if he or she has the flu, Ebola, SARS or simply a sniffle.

“With a 25-minute test it becomes feasible for someone to just wait while you find out — and if they had that information our health-care system could be dramatically more effective,” said Backhouse.

Health-care professionals could also easily test for the genetic signature of a virus or E. coli, which could make it valuable in determining water quality, he said.

The project has been in the works for a decade and has been funded from a number of sources including the federal government's Western Economic Diversification agency as part of a more wide-ranging project dubbed the Alberta Cancer Diagnostic Consortium.

“This is an excellent example of how we can help generate health and economic benefits,” said Donna Kinley, the agency's regional manager of communications.

Kinley said the agency has invested $2.5-million to help create and market the lab-in-a-box and has committed more than $33-million to other life science initiatives.

That includes the Neuroarm project with the University of Calgary, which is focusing on using miniaturization to allow for more precise and accurate surgery.

Another is a three-dimensional hologram of the human body to allow students to see how all the body's organs and systems work together.

As for Backhouse's team, the work is not over.

He said they're still working on lining up companies to produce the device commercially but couldn't say when it would be in production.

In the meantime, they are working on prototypes for improved genetic testers that are squished down to the size of a fist and, eventually, to a USB key.

“In about six months we'll have something that's literally three chips and an LED and nothing else,” he said.