A growing set of nanoscale components are emerging from the lab that someday will power handheld devices that can provide custom health care advice, marrying novel bioengineering components with existing computer and consumer technologies, says Luke P. Lee, professor of bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley.

The new devices he envisions could, for example, “examine your physiological data every week and help you behave based on examining very sensitive biomarkers that may determine, for example, you have 50 percent chance of getting cancer with your current diet.”

Also see: BioPOETS