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‹ Wed · 13 May 2026
Promising but preliminary

Single-cell impedance sensing on integrated circuit chip for fast tumor diagnosis

An inexpensive lab-on-chip diagnoses tumors during surgery in 20 minutes, potentially improving surgical decision-making in the operating room.

An integrated-circuit-based single-cell electric cell-substrate impedance sensing (IC-ECIS) chip fabricated at under $1/chip provides intraoperative tumor diagnosis in 20 minutes across 6 tissue types, validated against histopathology. The low cost and rapid turnaround represent a potentially transformative point-of-care approach for intraoperative surgical decision-making.

What the study was

Study design
Device development and clinical sample validation
Population
Clinical tumor specimens from thyroid, liver, gallbladder, bile duct, breast, and pancreas
Category
Diagnostics
Maturity
Exploratory
Journal
Microsystems & Nanoengineering

Why it surfaced

Novel $1/chip intraoperative diagnostic platform with 20-minute turnaround. Sample size and validation set size not disclosed in abstract. Feasibility stage.

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