The application of smartphones to medical devices has been gaining attention in addressing accessibility and cost issues in healthcare, and the detection of medically relevant compounds has been demonstrated using customized smartphone hardware and/or software. Metabolomics, a newly rising omics field, has also spawned many medical applications but requires highly sophisticated and expensive equipment. Here, we describe a portable smartphone platform, built with readily available and affordable materials, that can perform all of the critical aspects of metabolomics. Excluding the smartphone itself, the total materials for the platform were obtained at less than US $20. For spectral data acquisition, the system utilized visible light (400-700 nm) and a built-in camera. All of the data processing, statistical analysis, and final-visualization components necessary for decision making were implemented in the smartphone platform. The platform is generally applicable as long as the analytes absorb visible light. We provide a proof-of-concept example wherein the metabolomics platform was applied to the assessment of cisplatin-induced kidney toxicity in a rat model, correctly predicting 7 out of 8 test samples.
Keywords: Drug toxicity; Metabolomics; Portable metabolomics; Smartphone.
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