A low-power and high-potential smartphone diagnostic.

The genius of a good product designer is the ability to create an experience that delights the end user. The designer rarely invents the components; he or she makes them noticed. Smartphones, microfluidics, low-power devices, 1-way valves, optical sensing, multiplexed assays, frequency-shift keying, and lyophilization are not new technologies. A device that successfully orchestrates these instruments to screen for HIV and active syphilis in 15 min, with validation in the field, is new—and important. Aaron Wheeler, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Toronto and an associate editor of Laboratory On a Chip, would know.