Blood

Blood diseases that are treatable in the US are death sentence in other parts of the world. We are developing a low cost, battery-powered portable device that can screen for sickle cell disease and malaria in newborns in remote villages. Knowing a child is at risk early in life will allow their parents to seek appropriate medical care to properly diagnose and treat the condition before life threatening complications arise.

Likewise treatments for hemoglobinopathies in first world countries are routine procedures, covered by insurance, but out of reach for many in the developing world. Resources for medical care are stretched thin. We are developing a simple, low power device that can be used simultaneously with conventional blood transfusion treatment to prolong the time between medical visits, allowing for more people to be treated at lower cost.

Microbial Contamination

Climate change is promoting a change in the natural occurrence of microbes and fungi in the environment. While many are harmless some species can lead to human illness due to contaminated food, medicine, and personal care products. There are many test kits that can detect such contamination but they are either too expensive or require specialized facilities that are simply unavailable. Our goal is to make simple, low cost, easy to use screening kits the can be used in storage facilities, households, field hospitals and farms to test for the presence of problematic contamination. While more sophisticated testing will still be needed a Yes/No kits can provide an inexpensive identification of places in remote areas that need the additional scrutiny, saving time and precious resources.

Blood Banks

A safe blood supply relies on healthy, willing donors, proper facilities, and thorough testing for safety. In cases where there are shortages, emergencies and lack of resources it is difficult to ensure safety. Low cost, on the spot technologies for screening blood, removing damaged fragments, microbial organisms and waste products before giving blood to a patient can go along way. Our goal is to make high tech screening and purification methods accessible in places where time and money are short, in order to save lives.