Researchers Create Low-Cost, Smartphone-Based 3D-Printed Diagnostic Device for Viruses (3Ders.org) ” A team of researchers from the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA has created a low-cost, smartphone-based device and app that is made with a 3D printer and can read enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA) diagnostic plates on the spot, with up to 99.6 percent accuracy for certain viruses. With the UCLA researcher new invention, a small and low-cost 3D printed device is attached to a smartphone and illuminates a 96-well plate with an LED array. The light is projected through each well and collected by 96 plastic optical fibers. A custom-designed smartphone app then reads the resulting images and analyzes them using a machine-learning algorithm. The diagnostic results can be sent back to the phone within one minute.The ELISA is a common diagnostic tool that requires large and expensive readout instruments that can only be found in well-equipped hospital labs. ELISA is not typically available in remote or developing countries in which the ability to track and diagnose contagious and life-threatening viruses such as HIV, West Nile and Hepatitis B could save thousands, if not millions of lives every year.