Bhushan J Toley, assistant professor in the Chemical Engineering Department has won a Grand Challenges Exploration grant of US $100,000 funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The award is for the development of new technology that could improve the diagnosis and monitoring of infectious diseases in rural areas. The foundation release stated, “Sputum, urine, and blood contain the DNA of infectious agents that can be used to diagnose diseases to aid treatment and help prevent spread. Diagnosis is generally performed in specialized laboratories, but the DNA can be damaged during transport from remote locations due to the length of time it takes or exposure to high temperature. Drying the samples would help protect the DNA but this requires a sterile method that can handle larger volumes of multiple types of specimen. They will develop a device incorporating microfluidics for spreading out large-volume samples onto a porous paper membrane for rapid drying. They will test various agents for coating the membrane to stabilize the DNA and keep it sterile. They will optimize the design and test its ability to detect tuberculosis in clinical sputum specimens from infected patients,” assistant professor in the Chemical Engineering Department has won a Grand Challenges Exploration grant of US $100,000 funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The award is for the development of new technology that could improve the diagnosis and monitoring of infectious diseases in rural areas. The foundation release stated, “Sputum, urine, and blood contain the DNA of infectious agents that can be used to diagnose diseases to aid treatment and help prevent spread. Diagnosis is generally performed in specialized laboratories, but the DNA can be damaged during transport from remote locations due to the length of time it takes or exposure to high temperature. Drying the samples would help protect the DNA but this requires a sterile method that can handle larger volumes of multiple types of specimen. They will develop a device incorporating microfluidics for spreading out large-volume samples onto a porous paper membrane for rapid drying. They will test various agents for coating the membrane to stabilize the DNA and keep it sterile. They will optimize the design and test its ability to detect tuberculosis in clinical sputum specimens from infected patients,”
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