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A pocket-sized and fully reliable analysis laboratory that gives results on many infections in three minutes, directly in the doctor’s office, without resorting to a specialized center, with its waiting times and costs. All in one card and a 40 centimeter totem that rests calmly on a desk, simple to use. Vivalytic, the analysis platform considered the new frontier of medicine, was created by Bosch in collaboration with Randox Laboratories, an Irish multinational diagnostics company, which will be joined, for further developments, by the German R-Biopharm, another biomedical giant.
There is a card about the size of a smartphone, but a little less thick. At the bottom are the circuits and microchips. In the upper part, divided into two parts, a housing with a cartridge similar to the case of a contact lens, the size of a one euro coin. «These in the card», explains the young researcher who shows it to the public for the first time, «are the container of the organic find and the basis for the first reaction». A network of circuits, on the back, and a small case, on the front, to process the samples that come into contact with the reagents.
An ATM and a card similar to a smartphone
The researcher pushes the container-basket of the find (saliva in this case, but it can also be blood or other) into its slot then inserts the card into the small totem on the table. The totem is bright white, the white of hospitals, and has blue edges. The researcher makes the same gesture as inserting a card into the ATM, with the machine recalling the magnetic card inside. Three minutes and the data appears on the display. The researcher presses a button and a receipt comes out, fixing them on paper. The sample was processed, examined and produced the results. The researcher reads the receipt. The sample is not infected with the influenza virus.
At the moment, rapid investigations can be carried out on many diseases or infections. Tests are already available for upper and lower respiratory tract infections, such as Sars and Covid, also for multiple variants and to distinguish between Sars, Covid and influenza. Testing for sexually transmitted diseases and hospital-acquired infections is available. From next summer, those for whooping cough, urinary tract diseases, bacterial meningitis, the two most common sexually transmitted diseases (chlamydia and gonorrhea), fungal infections (such as candida) and three tests for diarrheal diseases will arrive. Next up are tests for sepsis, a lethal infection that destroys internal organs, and tuberculosis. Every year in Europe there are more than 670 thousand serious infections.
A totem that processes data
Test results appear on the display and can be printed
Inserting the card into the totem that processes the analyses
A cross between microelectronics and molecular medicine
While the technician works on the machine, through the large window you can see four transparent buildings, each with five floors, which house the Bosch research laboratories in Renningen, a suburb of Stuttgart, next to the NATO base. There are 1,700 researchers at work. Each of the laboratories has a specialization: microelectronics, chemistry, physics, medicine. Everyone is constantly talking to each other about projects. Vivalytic was born here, also thanks to the collaboration of Bosch Competence Centers around the world, including the one in Milan specialized in sensor design. Vivalytic, explains the researcher, is a cross between microelectronics and molecular medicine. The chips and sensors are the same as those in smartphones.
