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SP students behind biochip that speeds up detection of deadly viruses

SINGAPORE — Detecting deadly viruses such as Ebola and HIV, and the coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), can potentially be sped up by an advanced disposable biochip developed by two final-year Singapore Polytechnic students.

Two electrical and electronic engineering final-year students from Singapore Polytechnic – Pavan Singh Gill, 19 and Leong Guang Hao, 19, developed an advanced biochip, which can potentially speed up the separation of cells for the diagnosis of viruses such as HIV, Ebola, and SAR. This project is a collaboration between Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech) and Singapore Polytechnic Centre for Biomedical and Life Sciences (CBLS). Photo: Clifford Lee/ TODAY

Two electrical and electronic engineering final-year students from Singapore Polytechnic – Pavan Singh Gill, 19 and Leong Guang Hao, 19, developed an advanced biochip, which can potentially speed up the separation of cells for the diagnosis of viruses such as HIV, Ebola, and SAR. This project is a collaboration between Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech) and Singapore Polytechnic Centre for Biomedical and Life Sciences (CBLS). Photo: Clifford Lee/ TODAY

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SINGAPORE — Detecting deadly viruses such as Ebola and HIV, and the coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), can potentially be sped up by an advanced disposable biochip developed by two final-year Singapore Polytechnic students.

The innovation, done in collaboration with the polytechnic’s Centre for Biomedical and Life Sciences and the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology, will mean that the equipment needed to show up these viruses will also be far more portable — from big machines to a chip smaller than the palm of a human hand.

Student Leong Guang Hao, who worked with schoolmate Pavan Singh Gill on this project, said: “If we are going into a rural area where there is an outbreak (of a virus), we don’t want to carry a machine over, we just want to make it simple and disposable.”

Right now, when blood samples are tested for viruses in laboratories, besides trained manpower, complicated and large machines are needed to separate the cells to test and identify the virus. This biochip potentially cuts down cost and time because blood is simply pumped through a spiral in the chip, and cells are separated by their sizes.

The design of the biochip will have to be further optimised, now that it is in its prototyping stage.

The two students, both 19 and pursuing a diploma in electrical and electronic engineering, have been working on this for six months under the joint Polytechnic Student Research Programme, and at a ceremony on Wednesday (March 16), their project was among 10 that received the best project award.

Two projects each from the five polytechnics in Singapore won awards, out of a total of more than 80 multi-disciplinary projects this year under the programme, which aims to expose students to future career possibilities in research and development (R&D) while working with different institutions such as the National University of Singapore and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).

Mr Philip Lim Feng, CEO of Exploit Technologies at A*STAR, hoping that students will be inspired by the research and its processes, said: “Our polytechnic students are going to be the ones entering the industries, working together with the customers, with the people who sell and make these products, and it is absolutely important that they are exposed to research.”

In January, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong unveiled a S$19 billion plan to support Singapore’s R&D efforts over the next five years.

Mr Lim sees this government budget as “a seed for many things” to create jobs, especially in the science, technology and engineering sector.

“This must continue be the cornerstone of Singapore’s education, as well as education leading to economic growth,” he said.

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