Project Lead(s): Roozbeh Safavieh
Diarrhoea is the second leading cause of death in children under five years old. Globally, there are nearly 1.7 billion cases of childhood diarrhoeal disease every year, killing around 525,000 children under five.
This project will produce a low-cost, highly-sensitive, rapid and easy-to-use diagnostic tool for simultaneous detection of the four most common gastrointestinal pathogens causing persistent diarrhoea in children: 1.) Giardia Lamblia, 2.) Cryptosporidium Parvum, 3.) Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli and 4) Rotavirus.
Sensoreal has developed prototypes of a variety of microchips capable of measuring a disease biomarker using a drop of blood. Manufacturing of the microchip costs only $0.50, allowing for a wide range of customers. For this project, Sensoreal will first engineer a vial containing a buffer solution and a filter, into which 50 microliters of a stool sample is placed. Proteins are dissolved in the buffer and the analyte passes through the filter. When the vial is then connected to the microchip, a colorimetric immunoassay is performed and the presence or absence of the four gastrointestinal pathogens is revealed, all in less than 25 minutes.
