An Australian company is working on technology that takes just minutes to find a genetic marker in blood – and it will fit in a device no bigger than a paddle pop stick.

The implications are amazing.

Soon, it may be possible to conduct spot checks for virtually any genetic condition, on large groups of people, in a very short time. It could be used to rapidly find health risks in cities, rural populations, disaster sites, war zones, and so many other instances.

The technology is called ‘EzyAmp’, and it has been brought to life by a talented young biomedical researcher from Sydney; UNSW PhD student Evelyn Linardy.

As well as describing the ease of use, the name is shorthand for ‘enzymatic amplification’.

EzyAmp can be used to find genetic diseases, allergies, immunities and other predispositions – an incredible tool for obtaining medical information in remote environments, which has a near inestimable range of applications.

It will be cheap and easy to use, bringing molecular medicine out of the laboratory and putting it in the hands of nurses and doctors in places of extreme need.

We spoke to Ms Linardy about the EzyAmp project and the very real possibility that she could be part of helping to millions of people.

EzyAmp uses a customisable enzyme-based trigger which is set off when it detects particular genetic sequences.

“We designed EzyAmp to work like a circuit,” researcher and student Evelyn Linardy explains.

“It’s composed of two labelled oligonucleotide pairs that can activate each other and produce a signal once they are cut by the provided enzymes... using enzymes that cut DNA.”

“Once the target is present – the nucleic acid sequence that you want – it binds to the sensor by normal nucleic acid base-pairing mechanisms,” she said.

From here, a cascading reaction is set off to boost the signal and confirm the finding.

“It becomes recognised by the enzyme, which then allows the enzyme to cut the first [oligonucleotide] pair.”

“Once it’s cut, it triggers the cleavage [cuts] for the second pair. So, the first pair activates the second pair, the second pair can then find more of the inactive first pair... that’s how the cascading works,” Ms Linardy said.

“For every target that you add in you get two levels of cleavage... the cleavage produces a signal.”

The exponential increase in signal for each consecutive target means that at the end of the line, the finding rings out loud and clear.

The EzyAmp can be used to find anything that conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques could find.

“As long as you know the sequence, you target a certain region and then you’re up and running,” Ms Linardy said, easy as that.

The Sydney-based researcher describes several years of effort with a typically scientific understatement.

Ms Linardy was handed the EzyAmp project as a junior at SpeeDx; an Australian medical diagnostic company which has developed a range of genetic and molecular testing technologies.

“I was just working here as a research assistant,” she said.

“And then the person at the time went on leave, and someone just said; ‘Hey Evelyn, come and continue this’, so I did it.”

“During that time we discovered new properties of the enzyme, we characterised it and [now] we exploit it in this kind of sensor.”

“The project is very exciting – because you really get to know the enzyme,” she said, laughing at herself for “sounding nerdy”.

“You discover these properties that no-one has ever found, and you get to use them... it’s exciting to see how things grow, especially when it’s so promising.”

EzyAmp is still in development, but all the component pieces are in place.

The handful of people working to the design are close to a commercial product, possibly within five years of the goal.

“We have shown that it can detect just a hundred molecules, that is quite sensitive... comparable with the big PCR technology,” Ms Linardy said.

“We’re just aiming to reduce the detection time. At the moment we can do it in forty minutes, we want to make it less than ten minutes, so it’s pretty instant.”

But the project will not end there.

“We’d also like to see it applied not just to nucleic acid targets, we want it to be applied to any other target... to make it a universal detection system for proteins and other biomolecules,” she said.

For Evelyn, the biomedical field in which she’s quickly carving her name is itself an inspiration to keep expanding.

“It progresses so fast,” Ms Linardy said.

“Every time you go to a conference, and see the new papers published every week.. all the smart things that people do.. it’s really promising.”

She says moving forward is all about collaboration and communication, something many scientists find when they realise the silo in which they work does not provide the best view.

“If you’re trying to make a device it doesn’t just take molecular biologists... you need engineers and you need nanotechnology people... so it’s always a multi-field kind of thing.”

With these kinds of device in development around the country, the future is bright for Australian innovation.

Fostering such creativity with proper investment, and ensuring the broader systems are in place to carry an idea from a spark to the market, will ensure it can continue designing and producing its place in the strange and exciting technological future.