Oct. 23, 2003 — Intel Corp. is working with a U.S. cancer research center to see if technology designed to detect microscopic imperfections on silicon chips can also be used to identify the earliest signs of disease.

Intel is building a Raman analyzer at the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center in Seattle. The team said the instrument will beam lasers onto samples such as blood serum to create images that reveal the chemical structures of molecules. They hope the analyzer helps them identify proteins in the serum that predict susceptibility, presence or prognosis of cancer and other diseases.

Company officials described the project as “discovery-based research” and don’t know what they will learn, but hope it leads to a new era of molecular diagnostics and disease detection.