Health Diagnostics

Mike Barrett, Jon Cooper and Lisa Ranford-Cartwright of the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom will test the ability of a key component in mobile phones to separate out red blood cells infected with malaria parasites in a blood sample. If successful, such devices could be mass produced for rapid and accurate malaria diagnosis.

Kenneth Puzey of QuantaSpec in the U.S. will develop the Spectraphone to provide automated, rapid, reagent-less diagnosis of malaria and other infectious diseases using an infrared spectrometer embedded in a cell phone.

Insu Song and Joachim Diederich of the James Cook University in Singapore propose a cell phone-based system for collecting and analyzing time location-tagged children's crying and breathing sounds to detect respiratory infections. This system provides treatment information for parents and generates public health data regarding the spread of infectious diseases.

Qianqian Fang of the Massachusetts General Hospital in the U.S. proposes to develop a portable, low-cost mobile-phone-based near-infrared camera for monitoring brain injury in neonates. If successful, it could help identify and monitor high-risk newborns in resource-limited regions.

Ionita Ghiran of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in the U.S. and collaborator Pierre Striehl of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine propose to develop a cell phone compatible diagnostic screening device based solely on the principles of magnetic levitation, allowing detection of malaria-infected red blood cells. If successful, mass production of the device should be possible due to its construction from basic components.

Róbert Gyurcsányi of Budapest University of Technology and Economics and Tamás Mészáros of Semmelweis University in Hungary are working with virologists and physicists to develop a poliovirus biosensor based on nanopores and aptamers. If successful, the device will allow on-site detection of poliovirus strains, making a poliovirus diagnostic available in low-resource areas.

Peter Vikesland of Virginia Polytechnical Institute in the U.S., along with Tamar Kohn of EPFL and Krista Wigginton of the University of Maryland, will develop a paper-based diagnostic in which inkjets imprint channels on paper to force water samples to detection zones where inkjet printer-embedded nanoparticles react to the presence of different poliovirus strains. This low-cost device could be used for point-of-use poliovirus screening.

Minetaro Arita of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Japan will develop a diagnostics platform to detect and characterize poliovirus from a stool sample. A soluble poliovirus receptor and magnetic beads will work together to concentrate the virus in a diagnostic tool and allow for not only detection but also differentiation of strains.

Linda Stewart and Irene Grant of Queen's University, Belfast in the United Kingdom have developed an immunoassay to help determine the incidence of Mycobacterium bovis, which causes tuberculosis in humans and cattle at currently unknown levels. Tuberculosis caused by M.bovis is resistant to a drug commonly used to treat tuberculosis caused by the more prevalent M. tuberculosis, but the diseases are indistinguishable.

Andrew Jackson of the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom will develop a diagnostic tool for Animal African Trypanosomiasis (Nagana), which is caused by unicellular parasites known as trypanosomes and threatens up to 50 million cattle in sub-Saharan countries. To avoid immune detection, the causative trypanosomes change their DNA sequences (genomes), particularly in genes encoding for cell surface glycoproteins, which also affects the symptoms the parasites cause.