Health Diagnostics

David Wright of Vanderbilt University in the U.S. will develop a new low-cost diagnostic tool in which a droplet of malaria-infected blood deposited on a glass slide will, based on fluid dynamics, leave a ring-like pattern as the blood evaporates. The slide will be prepared with a solution that will interact with a particular protein of the malaria parasite to visualize this "coffee ring stain," allowing for easy interpretation and ready diagnosis.

William Royea of Next Dimensions Technology, Inc., in the U.S. seeks to develop a point-of-care breath analyzer. The proposed system aims to use an array of chemical films that are sensitive to changes in electrical conduction as a result of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) produced by tuberculosis (TB). In this project's Phase I research, Royea and his team demonstrated proof-of-concept for detecting breath-based biomarkers of TB in a clinical setting.

Keith Tyo and Josh Leonard of Northwestern University in the U.S. will work to engineer yeast-based biosensors that identify protein biomarkers in samples like blood and urine. An array of yeast strains could serve as a low-cost, in-home device providing patients with a panel of diagnostics to improve treatment and diagnosis in resource-poor settings.

Francesco Ricci of the University of Rome, Tor Vergata in Italy and collaborator Alexis Vallee-Belisle of the University of California, Santa Barbara propose to develop molecular nanoswitches that provide a visual cue when they bind to HIV antibodies for use in a rapid (one minute) diagnostic test to detect and quantify HIV antibodies in serum samples.

Shaorong Chong of New England Biolabs in the U.S. will synthetically reconstruct essential biological processes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and use this system as a drug-testing platform for the screening of small-molecule therapeutics against multi-drug resistant M. tuberculosis.

Eric Henderson of Iowa State University in the U.S. will build an inexpensive and robust nanodevice that uses DNA as a scaffold to interact with proteins and nucleic acid markers of target pathogens. When this interaction occurs, the movement will be detected by a reader embedded in the device to create a visual readout of pathogen detection.

Andriy Kovalenko, Nikolay Blinov and David Wishart of the University of Alberta in Canada propose to use synthetic biology to develop protein-based metabolite biosensors. These biosensors will be used to create a simple, low-cost diagnostic test for pneumonia that is based on specific metabolite signatures found in urine.

David Segal of the University of California, Davis in the U.S. will develop a high-throughput screen to search for artificial transcription factors (ATF) that are candidates to treat P. falciparum infections. ATFs could be a gene-regulating drug resource for the study and treatment of malaria.

Héctor Morbidoni of the Universidad Nacional de Rosario in Argentina proposes to develop a biosensor to detect bacterial pathogens using modified bacteriophages and an isothermal DNA amplification process. Commercial scale manufacturing of the biosensor should be possible due to the simplicity of their components.

Paul Freemont and colleagues at Imperial College London in the United Kingdom will develop and test a self-replicating biosensor that can quickly detect proteases released by parasites. Rapid detection of parasites could lead to early treatment as well as help track the spread of disease.