The student of the Degree of design Industrial and development of Product Mikel Sanchez has defended this week his project of End of Thesis Degree. "My project consisted of the design and development of a Point of Care device to detect lung cancer markers, mainly in collaboration with CEIT , although Biodonostia, BiomaGUNE and the CFM are also involved in project ", highlights Mikel. Point of Care devices are those that bring medical diagnostic tests closer to, or near, the patient's point of care. In this case, the aim is to avoid having to send samples to laboratories for tumor diagnosis, a process that can take weeks. 

With a device like this, can these times be reduced?

Yes, it is possible to reduce the time to less than an hour. Markers are substances in cancer cells that provide information about the cancer. They have evolved from proteins to genomic markers, such as gene mutations (i.e., changes in the DNA of a tumor). 

Why did you choose topic for your PFG? 

When I started to specialize in design Product it was quite clear to me that what attracts me most is the design focused on people and groups, to help people with what I am able to do. That's why design applied to biomedicine attracts my attention, and when I received the offer of this project I didn't hesitate. 

What did you get from this project?

I have found result very enriching at the level of staff, for the above mentioned, to have been able to carry out a project related to biomedical research. It has also been a challenge research on this subject of topics, because when I started I did not know almost what cancer was, besides getting experience in an environment multidisciplinary. result It has been very satisfying for me to design not only the actual device, in which the users are the biomedical researchers themselves, but also possible evolutions in the formal design for a final Username . 

What practical applications can it have? 

The main practical application of the final device, when commercialized, is the detection of lung cancer markers without having to send samples to the laboratory, which would speed up and reduce the cost of the process. The healthcare attendance is changing, partly for economic reasons and because an effort is being made to put the patient at the center of attention. Also, in many countries there is no possibility to do this subject analysis in time, a Point of Care device facilitates the opportunity to help them and favors areas with low population density where specialists are far away. Regarding my part in the project, I have designed and prototyped a functional device for the researchers themselves to continue advancing in the project, in addition to future designs for when it is commercialized.