Successful diagnosis, screening, and elimination of malaria critically
depend on rapid and sensitive detection of this dangerous infection,
preferably transdermally and without sophisticated reagents or
blood drawing. Such diagnostic methods are not currently available.
Here we show that the high optical absorbance and nanosize of
endogenous heme nanoparticles called “hemozoin,” a unique component
of all blood-stage malaria parasites, generates a transient
vapor nanobubble around hemozoin in response to a short and
safe near-infrared picosecond laser pulse. The acoustic signals of
these malaria-specific nanobubbles provided transdermal noninvasive
and rapid detection of a malaria infection as low as 0.00034%
in animals without using any reagents or drawing blood. These
on-demand transient events have no analogs among current
malaria markers and probes, can detect and screen malaria in seconds,
and can be realized as a compact, easy-to-use, inexpensive,
and safe field technology.