Startrek comes to Purdue University

May 18, 2012

As I mention on my web site, I have written a number of marketing reports over the years on a range of topics. Most of these reports describe various companies, their business strategies, their products and outlooks for the industries which are profiled. I frequently interview scientists and members of the business community, as I did in a report published last year on mass spectrometry (http://www.insightpharmareports.com/Mass-Spec-Report). Perhaps the most exciting encounter was with R. Graham Cooks, a professor at Purdue University.

 Cooks described to me an amazing advance in mass spectrometry technology that he and his students are building, a hand-held device that can identify molecules from a distance. Ordinarily mass spec analysis requires that a sample be introduced into a vacuum chamber where it is ionized and its precise molecular weight is measured by deflecting the molecule through a magnetic field. Since no two large protein molecules have exactly the same molecular weight, the data can be fed into a computer which identifies the sample.

 The devices being developed by the Cooks group employs desorption electrospray ionization or DESI, in which a solution is electrosprayed on a sample from a distance and molecules, dissolved in the solvent, are picked up by a handheld mass spectrometer which can identify them.

 It’s easy to imagine the applications of a device that would be the size of the “Tricorder” on Star Trek, and could be miniaturized to the size of a cell phone. Medical diagnosis, food safety testing, quality control in manufacturing, environmental monitoring, airport security, the list is endless; all carried out rapidly and in the field.

 Cooks believes that such devices could someday be cheap and ubiquitous; you can imagine checking out food quality at your local supermarket or water contamination in your swimming pool. Instantaneous, and practically cost free!

 I asked Cooks when he thought such devices will be available in the marketplace, I guessed 10 years, but he cut that number in half.

 It’s difficult to exaggerate the transformative effect that such devices will have on society.

I will be meeting with Cooks and his colleagues in Purdue in November and will bring readers of this blog up to date on the the group’s latest developments.

 

Comments

There are currently no comments

Submit a Comment

Please be sure to fill in all information. Comments are moderated. Please no link dropping, domains as names; do not spam and do not advertise.

*