“Honey, I Shrunk the PCR.”

In the 1530s, hundreds of years before microscopes and Petri dishes, an Italian physician called Girolamo Fracastoro wrote about the concept of “contagionist theory” — that infectious diseases could be transmitted through personal contact, handling objects, or even from the air.

Fast forward to 2020 and the management of infectious diseases remain one of the biggest challenges facing mankind, as evidenced by the COVID-19 pandemic.

From a clinical perspective, how can we tell that a patient has an infection? The current solution is the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), the gold standard lab-based assay that uses genetic material standards to positively identify the unknown pathogen present in a biological or environmental sample.

Thanks to researchers at the Imperial College London, the future of infection diagnostics has arrived — tiny PCR “laboratories” made of silicone (so small that they fit on the tip of your finger).

Named TriSilix, the value of this disposable miniature laboratory lies not just in its portability, but how easy it is to manufacture at large scales. Silicone devices are cheap and relatively simple to fabricate, which paves the way for this technology to reach resource-limited settings.

Firat Guder, one of TriSilix’s inventors said: “Rather than sending swabs to the lab or going to a clinic, the lab could come to you on a fingernail-sized chip. You would use the test much like how people with diabetes use blood sugar tests, by providing a sample and waiting for results-except this time it’s for infectious diseases.”

With TriSilix’s diminutive size and lab-grade accuracy, the technology can easily become an at-home diagnostic solution for both infectious diseases, such as COVID-19 and other medical conditions. Each device has an in-built DNA sensor, a heater, and a sensitive temperature gauge to maintain the precise temperatures required for the PCR. Unlike its lab-based predecessor, this PCR machine is not a power-hungry device — a single charge of a smartphone battery…