ST MICROELECTONICS, the Franco-Italian semiconductor company, said today that it had created a portable chip which could scan humans for various forms of influenza, including the dreaded bird flu.

There have so far been 236 human deaths stemming from bird flu, but scientists warn that a mutation of the disease could cause an epidemic leading to a catastrophic number deaths in the future. This means that biomedical chips are potentially big business for companies like ST.

Reuters claims that the device is a thumbnail sized microchip which basically doubles as a tiny laboratory. It can apparently process and analyze blood, serum and respiratory swab samples in under two hours to ascertain whether or not they contain certain pathogens. ST also reckons that its bio-medical chip can tell the difference between Influenza A and B viruses, antibiotic-resistant strains and mutated virus variants, including the H5N1 strain, better known as bird flu.

The chip, dubbed VereFlu, was developed over the course of a year by the European chipmaker in collaboration with Singapore's privately held Veredus Laboratories. It also underwent testing last year at Singapore's National University Hospital.

At a press conference marking VerFlu’s commercial launch in Singapore on Monday, ST's Asia Pacific chief executive, Francois Guibert, said that "ST sees new high growth opportunities in the healthcare market”. But the Biomedical market is not the only one which could potentially make use of the new chip. It is believed that there could be significant demand for the device in airports as a way to screen travelers for infectious diseases. µ

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Reuters