Rob:  This week in our continuing series on the “science of the small,” our Alisa Hines shows us how scientists have miniaturized technology not too different from what you can find in the grocery store, tiny barcodes that could detect diseases in people and animals.
Alisa:  Bar codes are small symbols that make identifications fast and easy.  Now scientists are combining that concept with nanotechnology to create tiny “disease detectors.”  They’ re manipulating molecules to make unique microscopic probes, nano-barcodes, that could tag pathogens in the human body or other environments.
Dan Luo:  There are many agricultural applications. For example, you can use that to potentially diagnose the infections in a farm. You can use nano barcodes to trace the bacteria in compost. It’s very much like the barcodes you see in grocery stores.  With this Y-shaped DNA, you can view its more complicated structure.
Alisa:  Cornell University researcher, Dan Luo is finding new ways to structure DNA, which makes the nano-barcodes possible.  He’s also working on a portable disease detector, similar to this prototype.
Luo: So that we don’t have to send the sample to the lab to make the detection.   Rather, we can do the detection in the field, in a farm, or on the bedside of a hospital, or in a local environment. Ultimately, it will interface with either a laptop or PDA. Then you can detect right in the battlefield, for example, or in a farm, what caused the infection.  And then you can make a decision right there.  You don’t have to wait. 
Alisa:  Making nano barcodes a small solution with big potential.