Fayetteville, AR – SFC Fluidics, LLC has received a $150,000 Phase I Small Business Technology Transfer award from the National Science Foundation. The project, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, will develop a prototype lab-on-a-chip that will allow a physician to rapidly detect oral cancer in its early stages. SFC Fluidics has exclusive license to a patented and patents-pending magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) fluid pumping system that is the enabling technology for these labs-on-a-chip.

The development of SFC's lab-on-a-chip technologies will be of tremendous benefit to both physicians and patients. Despite therapeutic and diagnostic advances, the five-year survival rate for oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) remains at about 50%. Early diagnosis and treatment of OSCC has been shown to lead to a mean survival rate of over 80% and a good life quality after treatment. However, no screening method to detect OSCC cancers has yet been developed. These labs-on-a-chip will provide a rapid, low-cost, non-invasive, cancer screening test that can be used to provide diagnostics for individuals in a single trip to a effectiveness of medical diagnosis and intervention strategies, and could be used for the early detection of many other types of cancers such as colon, lung, stomach, and prostate as well as other diseases and conditions that alter the gene expression of cells.

Dr. Christine E. Evans, Chief Scientist at SFC  Fluidics explains, "The small, hand-held diagnostic device we are developing will provide rapid oral cancer screening using only a saliva sample. This is an exciting opportunity to provide early detection for oral cancer, leading to a significant increase in the survival rate and patient quality of life."


[ More news releases ]