Prior Funding

The combined health and socioeconomic consequences attributable to
HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis (TB), urgently requires the development of
diagnostic strategies to reduce the burden of these neglected diseases. The
overall goal of this project is develop point-of-care technologies for rapid
diagnosis of or TB, HIV or simultaneous detection of TB/HIV co-infection based
in the same blood specimen. These diagnostic technologies upon complete
development integrate high-performance carbon nanoparticle probes that emit
visible red or green light upon excitation with ordinary flashlight batteries, into
low-cost use and throw chips. We expect that the assay will be capable of
detecting molecules specific to TB and/or HIV at concentrations as low as 0.1
to 0.01 nanograms /mL, improving sensitivity by 100 fold compared to current
commercial technologies. What we learn from developing these technologies will
allow us to build assays or tests that can be expanded to include molecules for
other neglected diseases. The market for point-of-care assays is quite large.
Such assays could be used by public health workers, first responders and
emergency room personnel.