Diagnosis in the palm of your hand: Professor Aydogan Ozcan creates $5 cytometer

August 22, 2011 – You might be looking at Facebook on your mobile device, but Professor Aydogan Ozcan wants to use your cell phone to look at your cells. Ozcan is a bioengineer who likes to make medical equipment small and affordable. Once, he invented a lenseless microscope (pictured) you could attach to your phone.

Now he’s used mobile technology to create a flow cytometer, a device that diagnoses diseases and measures their progress. Most cytometers are enormous and expensive, but Ozcan’s machine costs $5 and it’s small enough for medical professionals in developing countries to transport to families who don’t have access to hospitals.

If you want to learn more about how the flow cytometer works, check out Ozcan’s paper. [2:20]