Infectious Disease

Nyaya Health has developed a mobile phone system for community health workers in rural Nepal to rapidly publish disease data together with metrics of government primary care quality. This facilitates surveillance and responsiveness of public healthcare.

Existing malaria vector control methods (e.g. nets and insecticide sprays) primarily target mosquitoes that enter or attempt to enter human dwellings, yet mosquitoes also obtain significant proportions of essential resources outdoors. Fredros Okumu of Ifakara Health Institute in Tanzania and his co-investigators therefore proposed the use of strategically-located outdoor vector control devices. In this project's Phase I research, the team created new and easy-to-use outdoor methods for luring, trapping and killing mosquitoes, including major African malaria vectors.

Sudeshna Adak from OmiX Research and Diagnostics Laboratories Pvt Ltd. In India will develop a point-of-care AMR test and polymer card combined with a phone based surveillance system to detect and track AMR molecular signatures in primary care settings or in settings where access to AMR testing is currently unavailable. They will demonstrate a proof-of-concept for detection of AMR in urinary tract infections (UTI), establish and validate a 5-gene AMR signature assay in the proposed AMR test.

Asif Mohammed from the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in India will identify miRNA patterns as potential biomarkers as per Receiver Operating Characteristics, to identify quantitative patterns of circulating human miRNAs which can be used as early biomarkers to predict outcome of the anti-TB drug therapy.

The objectives of this project are: 1) elimination of tuberculosis in Casablanca using m-Health service based on smart medication device and service 2) market expansion to a whole Morocco.

Conduct clinical research and distribute mobile diagnostic chips in Cambodia and Malawi to accelerate elimination of Malaria.

Vuno is developing diagnostics tools using artificial intelligence technology to remedy problem in maternal health related to sexually transmitted diseases in Mongolia by providing expert level gynecology diagnostics support through portable devices.

Develop a prototype for auto-diagnosis malaria platform and do observational research in Cambodia, especially low resource setting area.

Odile Ouwe Missi Oukem of Cameroon's Centre International de Reference Chantal Biya will set up a suite of computer tools to manage and analyze biological, clinical and epidemiological data collected from African HIV-infected patients to better study HIV resistance to antiretroviral drugs.

Warwick Grant of La Trobe University in Australia will develop a small animal parasite model to test candidate drugs for treating the parasitic nematode Onchocerca volvulus, which causes river blindness in humans. They will establish infection of the related parasite Cercopithifilaria johnstoni in rats and evaluate the pathology for similarity to the human disease. The model will then be validated for testing human anti-onchocercal drug candidates by analyzing the effect of drugs with proven success in patients.