Researchers at the University of Texas are developing a microfluidics device that detects oral-cancer cells in 10 minutes and is simple and cheap enough for use in the dentist’s office.

The device could be adapted to test for other cancers, including cervical cancer.

The device, made of acrylic, has a small reaction chamber fed and cleaned via tiny inlet and outlet channels. A solution of scrapings from a patient’s mouth enters through the inlet and is strained through a cell-catching filter. Caught cells are then flooded with a solution containing fluorescent protein tags. The tags stick to a protein, called a cancer biomarker, that’s made in much greater quantities by oral-cancer cells than by normal cells. Under a fluorescence microscope, cancer cells caught in the device have an intense green halo. The entire test can be performed in less than 10 minutes.