Ke Zhenghao revolutionizes medicine: small chips build big health

In the past 20 years, Dr. Ke Zhenghao has led a research team to not only miniaturize the large laboratory spectral detection equipment into a "spectral chip" the size of an SD card, but also successfully shrink the spectrometer to a size as small as the palm of your hand, which can be carried around. Test at any time. In the future, we will cooperate with professional medical institutions to build a health care network connecting home and hospital, and realize telemedicine, precision medicine, AI smart medicine and preventive medicine.

For centuries, spectrometers have been one of the research focuses of the scientific community because of their advantages such as high accuracy, large measurement range, fast speed and small sample usage. However, "it is large in size, expensive, and requires professional personnel to operate," Ke Zhenghao said, adding that this has always been the most difficult difficulty to overcome in the development of spectrometers. "Any scientific research must first go through repeated theoretical calculations and verifications before it can step into the process of developing technology and equipment." Although this is easy to say, it is easier said than done. Ke Zhenghao jokingly called the construction of the project an "impossible task".

Painstaking research to achieve the impossible

Once, in the school he was studying, he used ten classrooms, each with 30 computers, and ran them for a week to repeatedly verify the theory. Huge amounts of data, one calculation after another, each calculation problem filled up the entire wall. "We recognize each of the numbers Dr. Ke wrote when they are separated, but they are all unfamiliar when put together," said Zheng Zhixuan, executive vice president of SGMC, with a smile.

The research journey is not only difficult, but also lonely. If the development of the electronics industry relies on the development and breakthroughs of integrated circuits to achieve lightweight, compactness and high performance, the development of spectrometers depends on the development and breakthroughs of similar MEMS (Microelectromechanical Systems) processes. However, everything has to start from scratch because the relevant theory has not yet been established, let alone conducting experiments based on the theory to prove that it is indeed feasible. "It's a sense of mission!" Ke Zhenghao said with a faint smile.

After obtaining his doctorate in the United States, he was invited to return to China to lead a national cutting-edge research project and became the host of the "National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center" and "Photoelectron Microscopic Imaging Spectrometer" projects. He also successively won the National Science Council's Outstanding Research Award and the Ministry of Economic Affairs' Advanced Technology R&D Award. Award, Inventor of Micro-Spectrometer, Top Ten Optoelectronic Product Outstanding Award, etc. Along the way, Ke Zhenghao has always been full of confidence.

At the end of 2018, the research team led by Ke Zhenghao used breakthrough innovative technology to not only successfully reduce the size significantly, but also the key technology, the spectrometer manufactured using the wafer production method, can be carried around.

Moreover, the series of biomedical testing instruments developed through this have been tested in actual clinical settings in hospitals. Ke Zhenghao emphasized that their accuracy is the same as or even better than that of the hospital's testing equipment. In addition, by combining the spectrum detector with a mobile phone and APP, you can also measure and record the results in real time.

Realize detection anytime and anywhere

"You don't need professionals, you can do the test yourself anytime and anywhere." The test results can be uploaded to the cloud database, and through integration with professional medical institutions, a health care network connecting home and hospital can be built. “Telemedicine and preventive medicine are possible!” he said.

At present, the "Shenguan Precision Rapid Screening Instrument" developed based on this has been used by Kaohsiung Municipal Xiaogang Hospital for antibody quantitative rapid screening, and clinical verification in many medical institutions has also confirmed that the antibody of the Shenguan Rapid Screening Instrument The detection sensitivity is actually more than a thousand times that of the international standard ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay). "This groundbreaking new technology has the uniqueness and superiority of antibody early detection," Ke Zhenghao emphasized.

"In the future, it can be applied to blood, tumors, various chronic diseases, urine, pet urine, and even food safety, plasticizers, industrial heavy metals, semiconductor factory pollution, etc., and after combining AI intelligent big data operation analysis, it can achieve Remote charging, remote medical care, remote long-term care monitoring, and precision medicine. " Ke Zhenghao is full of confidence in the future application and development of spectrometers.