An article in Futurity details the findings of a paper in the Journal of Immunological Methods on a unique, new test that could one day detect diseases like cancer. The technique generated a massive library of random molecular shapes to can detect antibodies in blood, and may one day lead to new screening tests for a variety of non-microbial causing diseases.

The findings of the paper show that it could be possible for researchers to develop a blood test that screens “random libraries of non-biological molecular shapes.” Donald S. Burke, one of the paper’s authors and dean of the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh, says “The method does not rely on starting with known viral components. This is important because there are conditions for which there isn’t a known antigen, such as newly emerged epidemics, autoimmune diseases, or even responses to traumatic injury.”

The new technique synthesized synthetic peptoid oligomers (peptoids hooked onto microscopic plastic beads). The peptoids can match an antibody so a researcher can run a test on a blood sample and pull out the peptoid/antibody combination for examination. The massive library of random shapes can be screened against a single drop of blood to detect antibodies for infections like HIV (as the authors did in the study), or any disease with no known antigens like types of cancers or autoimmune diseases. Burke says he hopes that the test will be “the first step toward development of an “Epi-chip”, that can be used to reconstruct a person’s entire exposure history.”