In the UK, there are an estimated 70,000 carriers of HIV. Worldwide, HIV/AIDS has grown to pandemic proportions with 35 million people living with the virus.

£2 million from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council will enable the joint venture between University College London and Imperial College London to bring together biomedical engineers, physicists, chemists, virologists and clinicians to create the device which will allow patents to monitor themselves. The monitors will act as an early warning system alerting patents when to seek medical help.

The device will use tiny mechanical sensors - called nano-cantilever arrays - to measure HIV and other protein markers than can indicate a rise in the level of the virus. UCL lead investigator Dr Rachel McKendry from UCL, explains: “The nano-cantilever arrays are each coated with substances that stick to the HIV and other proteins, which are markers associated with disease progression. Accommodating these markers causes the highly sensitive sensors to bend like a diving board and this bend indicates the level of the virus in the body. We have used nano-cantilever arrays to investigate drug resistance in super bugs, and are excited by the opportunity to extend this approach to detecting HIV markers.”

By Leila Sattary