Jonathan Cooper,
The Wolfson Chair of Bioengineering,
University of Glasgow
Professor Jon Cooper holds The Wolfson Chair in Biomedical Engineering. He is an EPSRC Research Fellow and holds a European Research Council Advanced Programme Grant. His major research interests are in ultrasonics, microfluidics and medical diagnostics. He has a track record of spin-out and translation of devices into practice. In one example, he is developing, rapid, zero-cost “origami paper” diagnostics species-specific DNA sensors to identify the cause of infectious disease and inform treatment “in the field” in Asia, India and Africa for point of care testing of infectious diseases in humans and animals from blood, sperm and faecal samples. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (UK’s national academy of engineering) as well as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (Scotland’s National Academy of arts, humanities and sciences).
Origami Paper Folding Enabling DNA Diagnostics in Under-served Rural Communities East Africa
Wednesday, 19 June 2019 at 09:00
Add to Calendar ▼2019-06-19 09:00:002019-06-19 10:00:00Europe/LondonOrigami Paper Folding Enabling DNA Diagnostics in Under-served Rural Communities East AfricaPoint-of-Care, Biosensors and Mobile Diagnostics Europe 2019 in Rotterdam, The NetherlandsRotterdam, The NetherlandsSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com
We have devised an origami-inspired paper device as a low-cost, rapid, and easy-to-use field test to help combat the spread of infectious diseases, like malaria. Although healthcare workers utilize various accepted methods, many standard tests have proven unreliable and impracticable, especially in remote, rural communities that lack refrigeration and laboratory equipment. To address the growing need for better tests, we have developed a paper, origami-inspired field device that provides fast, high-quality, species-specific malaria diagnostics that compare favorably to PCR laboratory assays, the current gold standard. Requiring just a wax printer and hot plate, the design draws on origami folding techniques to create a paper device which prepares blood samples for a field-friendly amplification technique known as loop-mediated isothermal amplification, or LAMP. The device is further augmented with microfluidic lateral flow LAMP amplification and a simple detection platform that can diagnose malaria species from a finger-prick blood sample. As a demonstration, we present a double-blind, first-in-human trial with rural primary schools in Mayuge and Apac Districts in Uganda that show the device outperforms other established techniques, detecting malaria in 98% of infected participants. Finally we also show that the techniques can be used in a variety of environmental and veterinary applications, with sampling from faeces, sperm and water in studies in India and China.
Add to Calendar ▼2019-06-18 00:00:002019-06-19 00:00:00Europe/LondonPoint-of-Care, Biosensors and Mobile Diagnostics Europe 2019Point-of-Care, Biosensors and Mobile Diagnostics Europe 2019 in Rotterdam, The NetherlandsRotterdam, The NetherlandsSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com
Add to Calendar ▼2019-06-19 09:00:002019-06-19 10:00:00Europe/LondonOrigami Paper Folding Enabling DNA Diagnostics in Under-served Rural Communities East AfricaPoint-of-Care, Biosensors and Mobile Diagnostics Europe 2019 in Rotterdam, The NetherlandsRotterdam, The NetherlandsSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com
