When envisioning medical technology of the future, images of holographic x-rays, wristwatch system monitors and full-body scanners sweeping a person from head to toe in seconds spring to mind.
Although still years in the making, devices of this caliber may not be too far away.
A team of University researchers in the Chemistry and Mechanical Engineering departments are developing a device that can find individual errors in a single strand of a person’s DNA, known as human genome sequencing.
The National Institutes of Health awarded Steven Soper, adjunct chemistry professor, a grant to fund research in genome sequencing. The goal is to develop technology that can complete the sequencing for $1,000 or less.
“Using a simple handheld device, the doctor could generate huge amounts of information to determine the history and the future of a particular patient,” Soper said. “It can tell which diseases people are predisposed to and how best to treat metastasizes.”
Soper said the University is the lead researcher on this project, but scientists and engineers are working with institutions like Weill Cornell Medical College, Baylor College of Medicine and Northeastern University in Boston.
Soper joined the University’s Chemistry Department in 1989 but is now a professor in biomedical engineering and chemistry at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He will remain an adjunct professor at LSU, meaning he will continue to be affiliated with the University but will hold a more flexible position. Students moving to UNC to continue researching with him will remain LSU students and will receive an LSU diploma after graduation.
Soper said his move will not affect the project. Students will continue working on the sequencer, and collaborators will remain at the University. The additional resources at UNC-Chapel Hill will accelerate work on the project, and researchers will be able to test the device in clinical settings, he said.
The Chemistry and Mechanical Engineering departments have been talking about and working on DNA sequencing technology like this for five years, and the anticipated completion date for a working model isn’t for five more.
A piece of DNA consists of three billion characters, he said. The sequencer scans all three billion characters piece-by-piece for mutations, determining if each character is correct.
The technology developed by the University will allow doctors to do this quickly and at a low cost so insurance will pay for it. Right now, this is not possible, Soper said.
“I tell my students if it was easy to do, everyone would be doing it, and it wouldn’t be worth doing,” he said.
Jiahao Wu, mechanical engineering graduate student, said the project has been challenging.
“It’s very interesting as a mechanical engineering student working on something related to biology and chemistry,” Wu said. “It’s a totally different world to be working with a single molecule