Health Diagnostics

Shengxi Chen of Arizona State University in the U.S. will design and prepare a fluorescent sCD4 protein that changes color when it binds to the HIV pg120 protein. By directly detecting a virus protein instead of antibodies or RNA, which take days to months to accumulate sufficiently to detect, HIV infection can be diagnosed immediately to help prevent the spread of the epidemic.

Christopher Vinnard of Drexel University in the U.S. proposes to develop a low-cost point-of-care urine test that can safely and accurately identify tuberculosis patients who poorly absorb anti-TB drugs. Testing patients for inadequate drug bioavailability could enable better drug dose optimization and decrease transmission rates.

Hossam Haick of Technion - Israel Institute of Technology in Israel is developing a sensing plaster that can be stuck on the chest to detect volatile biomarkers emitted through the skin for self-diagnosis of tuberculosis even at early stages. The presence of tuberculosis will be signaled by colored LEDs. In Phase I, they evaluated different materials and selected non-toxic nanomaterial-based sensors. They also performed a study of healthy people and tuberculosis patients and identified several candidate volatile compounds that could be detected by the sensors.

Lilian Waiboci of the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention- Kenya will use new technology to screen respiratory specimens from hospitals in Kenya for 21 pathogens, bacteria and viruses that all cause lower respiratory tract illnesses. Data generated from these screens will allow for better tracking of circulating pathogens, inform more effective treatments, and potentially reduce the development of drug resistance.

Todd Coleman of the University of California, San Diego in the U.S. along with John Rogers of the University of Illinois will develop wireless tattoo-like electronics to continuously monitor vital signs of the pregnant mother and fetus. The devices have the potential to be inexpensively mass produced, which could advance epidemiological studies of preterm birth.

Pingshan Wang of Clemson University in the U.S. will develop and test an electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) sensor that uses radio-frequency interference to boost its sensitivity for the detection of malaria pigment in a single red or white blood cell. Such devices could allow for accurate and quantitative malaria diagnostics with blood or non-invasive finger-tip test systems.

Catherine Ronet and Mary-Anne Hartley of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland will target a naturally occurring RNA virus in Leishmania parasites (LRV) that not only aids parasite survival, but also causes a destructive inflammatory response in humans. They will develop and refine a LRV diagnostic device and formulate the virus as a vaccine candidate for the prevention and treatment of the leishmaniasis.

Chetan Patil of Temple University in the U.S. is adapting camera mobile phones for the simple and low cost measurement of bilirubin levels to identify jaundice in newborns by photographing the skin. Jaundice is a common disorder in newborns and can often be easily treated with sunlight. In developed countries, bilirubin measurements are standard-of-care, but in low resource settings, detection can be prohibitively expensive. If jaundice is not treated, it can lead to long-term disabilities.

Ian Matthews of Cardiff University in the United Kingdom proposes to develop a self-sampling micro-needle patch device for the collection of small volumes of blood. Micro-needles will be fabricated using Deep Reactive Ion Etching. The device will permit non-refrigerated transport of collected blood for subsequent assays for diagnosis of infectious disease.

Dr. Robert Gilman of A.B. PRISMA in Peru proposes to develop a rapid method of evaluating treatment response to tuberculosis and multidrug-resistant TB by measuring exhaled nitric oxide. Preliminary data has shown that patients with MDR-TB exhibit elevated levels of FeNO, and identifying these patients early can lead to alternative treatments to reduce transmission.