The 10th edition of the European Inventors Awards which are presented annually by the European Patent Office in co-operation with the European Commission has been held in Paris.

An international jury drawn from industry, science and the media selected 15 finalists from hundreds of applicants.

The Lifetime Achievement Award went to the Swiss inventor Andreas Manz who was honoured for the invention of the microlab chip technology. Thanks to his work it is now possible to conduct complex medical, biological or chemical analyses quickly and efficiently on microchips no bigger than just a few millimeters in size.

Lab-on-a-chip technology promises to revolutionize in-field monitoring and diagnosis. Future uses might include inexpensive, fast testing in remote, impoverished areas which are difficult to access for endemic and pandemic diseases.

Among other diseases research is already being carried out for diagnosis of HIV and malaria.

“Basically the advantage of lab-on-a-chip is th