The research team is from Florida Atlantic University, and a paper on the technology has been published in Nature Scientific Reports. Their collaborators explain how the combination of cellulose and flexible polyester film technology breaks through the limitations of the paper and flexible material platforms used in current diagnostic applications.

Using paper and flexible substrates as raw materials for biosensors, the researchers have found a fast and cost-effective way to diagnose diseases and monitor treatments.
  
  "Clinical care requires fully functional, disposable, portable biosensing platforms that must be inexpensive, especially in developing countries with limited resources," said Dr. Waseem Asghar, assistant professor of electrical engineering in the College of Engineering and Computer Science at Florida Atlantic University and one of the authors of the paper.
  
  Existing paper and flexible material platforms use colorimetric, fluorescent agent methods and electrification to implement the marking step, which is expensive to manufacture and requires expensive equipment and infrastructure.
  
  Asghar notes that the materials used in their platform are very easy to manufacture, easy to use and can be safely disposed of by incineration. Affordable tools can be made from these materials for applications in drug development, food safety, environmental testing, and infectious disease diagnostics in developing countries.
  
  "Our micro-core technology research has great potential impact in the area of infectious disease control, especially in low- and middle-income countries with limited experimental infrastructure." said Dr. Hadi Shafiee from Harvard Medical School, who is the first author of the paper.