It is comparable to tens of thousands of dollars of instruments, and smartphones can detect DNA.
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Can a smartphone only be used to play games online? Then you are OUT!
Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have developed a method to read DNA tests on smartphones to detect disease-associated biomarkers that rival those of high-end professional equipment in laboratories and hospitals. The research online was published in the journal ACS Nano. 
The new technology uses a new hybrid dye as a DNA developer that emits light more than 10 times brighter than existing signals, which can then be detected using the sensor and optics of a cell phone. 
The test results for this dye/cell phone reading system are comparable to instruments worth tens of thousands of dollars.
It is well known that nucleic acid testing can be used to test for infectious diseases, hereditary diseases, cancer mutations, and to check for fetal abnormalities. The amount of disease-related nucleic acid contained in the standard test sample is very low. In order to increase the sensitivity of optical tests, nucleic acids are clinically amplified to make the fluorescence they emit easier to find.
Both traditional amplification and optical detection steps require expensive and large instruments, which greatly limits the scope of the application. Researchers at UCLA are committed to developing low-cost optical inspection methods.
Luminescent molecules associated with DNA , called intercalating fluorescent dyes, are used to identify amplification of DNA, but these dyes are usually unstable and the emitted fluorescence is too dim for cell phone sensors.
The UCLA team started development here. They first discovered an additive that stabilizes the embedded fluorescent dye and significantly increases the fluorescence signal relative to the background signal level. The boosted fluorescence can be efficiently read by a low cost mobile phone.
This magical addition is hydroxynaphthol blue.
The addition of hydroxynaphthol blue gives the system a 69-fold fluorescence signal from the background signal, which is a very good signal-to-noise ratio and can be well observed. In a function of temperature and time, the stability of the fluorescence is increased by more than 60%, thereby avoiding the need to manually calibrate the baseline and secondary use of the dye in a conventional manner.
Researchers have shown that this combination of stains is commonly used to detect amplification of any nucleic acid, allowing for use in a variety of nucleic acid amplification pathways and assays.
The team demonstrated the method using a loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) pathway with phage DNA as the target molecule. The team now plans to test more complex clinical samples related to the disease, such as the flu.
This new approach is part of the UCLA team's disease diagnosis technology development project, and we look forward to more low-cost and convenient ways to come out.