Bio Pen

The BioPen has been designed to help soldiers on the battlefield determine whether they have been exposed to dangerous biological agents in under 20 minutes. The novel diagnostic device – equipped with a small LCD screen - is user-friendly, does not require the user to have any preliminary training, and is self-sufficient. In addition, it can be used to check whether water is drinkable, to detect environmental toxins, and to diagnose various common infections such as Hepatitis B and C, and even several types of cancer, more accurately and efficiently than tests currently in use. This amazing feat is achieved by a special method devised by the Ben Gurion University team for antigen detection, which is an adaptation of the widely employed Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA).

The ELISA at Work

When the body's immune system encounters a particular antigen (for example, a characteristic protein on the surface of a virus or bacterium), antibodies that are specific for that antigen intercept it, physically binding to it in a "lock and key"-like fashion, thereby neutralizing the organism. The ELISA is a fundamental immunological and biochemical technique, utilized to detect a putative antigen or antibody in a sample, based on antigen-antibody interactions. If a putative antigen (or likewise, an antibody) is detected, a signal is produced in the form of a measurable change.