Measuring proteins in the blood can help doctors determine patients' cancer risk and monitor the health of the elderly and people with chronic diseases.

But current methods for testing these proteins are too expensive and require too much blood to be performed regularly.

A microfluidic chip in clinical trials does on a single chip in 10 minutes what normally takes multiple technicians hours to do--and with just a single drop of blood.

Researchers hope to make bedside diagnostics based on blood proteins a reality by bringing down the cost of such tests by at least an order of magnitude.

"Serum proteins provide an incredible window into the biology of disease,"

"These devices should lead to a decrease in cost and an incredible benefit to patients,"