Health Diagnostics

Bruce Hamaker of Purdue University in the U.S., and colleagues in Mali, will use a new non-invasive breath test to assess moderately malnourished children for pancreatic enzyme deficiencies that inhibit the digestion of energy-rich starch, and then test simple, local foods for their ability to deliver the alternative energy food glucose to these children for recovery, growth, and brain development.

Ahsan Khandoker of Khalifa University in the United Arab Emirates will build a low-cost, non-invasive abdominal phonogram device that can be used on a mobile phone to assess sounds that indicate fetal well being such as heart rate and body movement. The device will employ a software algorithm to extract fetal noises in an acoustic signal from maternal and environmental noises, allowing health care workers in remote locations to conduct obstetric assessments without expensive or invasive equipment.

Manu Prakash and a team at Stanford University in the U.S. will field test their origami-based paper microscopes designed for disease diagnostics. These lightweight print-and-fold "Foldscopes" can be packed in a flat configuration, assembled in minutes, have no mechanical moving parts, and can be incinerated if required. Testing the device in India, Thailand, and Uganda will allow user feedback to help refine the design for future scale-up.

Douglas Weibel of the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the U.S. proposes to develop a portable diagnostic system that uses inexpensive plastic assay cartridges that wick samples into chambers loaded with reagents to detect bacteria associated with neonatal sepsis. The cartridges will be attached to a smart phone loaded with an application that collects data and transmits results to a clinical lab for further treatment instructions.

Jennifer Andrew of the University of Florida in the U.S. will develop a non-invasive diagnostic platform for the detection of tuberculosis (TB). Nanoparticles will be attached to a polymer matrix to form a dry powder for delivery by inhalation to the lungs, where the presence of TB-infected cells will stimulate nanoparticle release. A simple test strip will detect the presence of released nanoparticles in urine within four hours as a rapid field-based TB diagnostic.

John Pietsch of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in the U.S. proposes to develop rugged, compact, easy-to-use bioelectrical impedance analysis instruments based on a smart phone platform to assess nutritional status in mothers, infants, and children. These instruments will allow minimally trained health workers to detect malnutrition prior to symptoms and determine the effectiveness of nutritional interventions.

Thomas Neumann of Nortis, Inc. in the U.S. will develop a tissue-engineered model of the mosquito midgut for use in an in vitro assay on a disposable, chip-like microfluidic device. This device could be developed into a standardized and automated platform to screen anti-malarial compounds that target the parasite in the mosquito before transmission to human hosts.

Tom Myers of MicroLab Devices in the United Kingdom proposes to develop an electrochemical point-of-care device to provide rapid and accurate diagnosis of malaria and serious bacterial infections in children using a finger-prick blood sample. Integrated diagnosis will allow prompt and accurate treatment and limit needless antibiotic dissemination, which leads to drug resistance.

Kathleen Bongiovanni of Seattle Children's Hospital in the U.S. will test whether oral fluids routinely suctioned from newborns mouths immediately after delivery - instead of fluids collected by amniocentesis or aspiration - can be used in a surfactant foam stability test to diagnose lung immaturity and predict respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). The non-invasive sample collection would enable skilled birth attendants in developing countries to detect lung immaturity in premature babies and reduce RDS-associated morbidity and mortality.

Heather Underwood of the University of Colorado, Boulder in the U.S. will develop and field test an interactive digital pen that works in conjunction with the partograph, a widely adopted labor monitoring graph, to validate data entered on the graph and provide alerts to health care workers regarding conditions that need additional observation or intervention.