Heat-Seeking Missile Tech Used For Malaria Diagnosis

Researchers at Monash University and the University of Melbourne have devised a way to use hardware from heat-seeking missiles to produce a test for early and reliable malaria diagnosis.In the project, researchers used a special infrared sensor called a focal plane array (FPA), which was originally created for use in Javelin anti-tank missiles, to seek out the presence of malaria in a blood sample. When the FPA was used in conjunction with an infrared imaging microscope to test a blood smear, it successfully detected the infrared signature from fatty acids in the malaria parasites, enabling researchers to consistently identify malaria-infested blood at early stages of infection.
Source: Medical Design Online News - Category: Medical Equipment Source Type: news