Times of India | Prakash Murthy puts together the best of Japan, India, US

Molecular diagnostics is crucial to understanding diseases, in developing drugs, in a variety of industrial processes. Most of these diagnostics are currently done through chemistry-based processes, like when your blood samples are sent to a lab for tests. Then there are big machines called spectrometers, which use light to ionise molecules, and identify them based on their molecular weights or signatures.

Spectrometers are very expensive. Chemical processes too require costly reagents and are done in centralised laboratories.