Singapore is developing an electronic chip that can pinpoint almost instantly whether a patient has flu, dengue fever, SARS or other respiratory illnesses, a newspaper reported yesterday.
The government-run Genome Institute of Singapore said it hoped to launch the respiratory pathogens detection chip, about the size of a matchbox, as early as January, the Sunday Times reported.
Sputum or nasal fluid from an infected person is dropped on to the chip and its detection probes then diagnose the pathogen. The institute said it was working with a major US medical devices company to test the chip soon, but declined to name the party.
"Patients who have flu, dengue fever or SARS all exhibit similar symptoms in the early stages of infection. The chip will be able to test for all this at once, identify if it's one or the other, and doctors will have a clear picture from the start," Ren Ee Chee, the institute's deputy director, told the paper.
Medical experts have repeatedly warned that the virus could re-emerge and that existing tests were not entirely reliable.
CHIPMAKING INVESTMENT: J.W. Kuo told legislators that Department of Investment Review approval would be needed were Washington to seek a TSMC board seat Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said he received information about a possible US government investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and an assessment of the possible effect on the firm requires further discussion. If the US were to invest in TSMC, the plan would need to be reviewed by the Department of Investment Review, Kuo told reporters ahead of a hearing of the legislature’s Economics Committee. Kuo’s remarks came after US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said that the US government is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers that
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Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have declared they survived recall votes to remove them from office today, although official results are still pending as the vote counting continues. Although final tallies from the Central Election Commission (CEC) are still pending, preliminary results indicate that the recall campaigns against all seven KMT lawmakers have fallen short. As of 6:10 pm, Taichung Legislators Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) and Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔), Hsinchu County Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘), Nantou County Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) and New Taipei City Legislator Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才) had all announced they
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