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New miniaturised chip dramatically reduces time taken for DNA analysis The portable device will speed up performing paternity tests, identifying bacterial infections and detecting genetically modified organisms (GMOs)A team of researchers at the Universitat Aut#1090;noma de Barcelona has developed new miniature sensors for analysing DNA. The sensors have the same size and thickness as a fingernail and reduce the time needed to identify DNA chains to several minutes or a few hours, depending on each chain. These sensors can be applied to many different tasks, ranging from paternity tests and identifying people to detecting genetically modified food, identifying bacterial strains in foodborne illnesses and testing genetic toxicity in new drugs. Once mass production of the sensors begins, their cost and availability will be similar to that of pregnancy test kits found in pharmacies.
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