After evaluation trials later this year, commercial variant of the system is likely to be produced within two years by Sensia, recently formed spinoff company from the CNM. The programme is one of several priorities areas funded by the EUs research Framework Programmes. The sample is injected into the device via microfluidic header and the deflection of the cantilevers by as little as to nanometres is picked up by photodetector array based on the reflection of light off the cantilevers from special laser technology, called Vertical Cavity Surface Emission Lasers.

One EU project is putting the finishing touches on system that will do just that. There are broad variety of applications for this system, although the main market is in biomedicine, explains OPTONANOGEN coordinator Laura Lechuga at the National Microelectronics Centre CNM in Spain. That compares to the hours or even days it can take to carry out the same analysis in laboratory, which is generally only used to test highrisk groups, such as women with family history of breast cancer.

One EU project is putting the finishing touches on system that will

Funding has also been set aside in the current programme FP6, running from 20022006, for research into Nanotechnologies and nanosciences, knowledgebased multifunctional materials and new production processes and devices, often abbreviated to NMP. The sample is injected into the device via microfluidic header and the deflection of the cantilevers by as little as to nanometres is picked up by photodetector array based on the reflection of light off the cantilevers from special laser technology, called Vertical Cavity Surface Emission Lasers.

The sample is injected into the device via microfluidic header and the deflection of the cantilevers by as little as to nanometres is picked up by photodetector array based on the reflection of light off the cantilevers from special laser technology, called Vertical Cavity Surface Emission Lasers.Weve patented both the microcantilever set up and the optical detection system, Lechuga says, and we are due to be lowcost components that would be disposable if used for medical analysis but which could be cleansed and reused for other applications.