INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
during which tainted water can infect thousands
OmniVis aims to make detection of cholera and other pathogens as quick, simple, and cheap as a pregnancy test
Battlefield today, emerged from research conducted at Purdue University, where CEO and co-founder Katherine Clayton completed her doctorate
She and her advisors were working on the question of using microfluidics, basically very close inspection of the behavior of fluids, to
detect cholera bacteria in water.In case you forgot your Infectious Diseases 101, cholera is a bacterium that thrives in water polluted by
a community is short on clean water.While normally uncommon, there was a huge cholera outbreak in Haiti in 2010 following a major earthquake
there; 665,000 people were infected and more than 8,000 people died
It was this humanitarian disaster that prompted Clayton to look into how such an event might have been prevented
academic spin-offs with valuable IP but zero product experience
Moving from lab bench to field-ready hardware has taken years of hard work
But the resulting device could upend a costly and slow water testing process that leaves communities at risk in crucial moments.Existing
water testing is generally done at a central location, a lab run by a university, utility, or the local government
well be flipping a coin.Such was the state of testing when Haiti had its outbreak and Clayton began looking into it
In 2013 they began investigating microfluidics as a method for detection
amplification.[gallery ids="1889722,1889720,1889721,1891113,1891110,1891105"]The more cholera is present, the more DNA will be available to
reliable proxy for how much cholera was present in it to begin with.It turns out this method is both quick and accurate: In 30 minutes it
But ultimately the device still had to go from the lab to the real world
To that end the team conducted pilot tests in Haiti, where they worked with local NGOs and communities to get some direct feedback.What they
have crept into the product the same as can happen on what is much more common, a male-dominated team
English and Svengali users likewise did fine
Interestingly, locals were baffled by roman numerals
quickly, especially considering how much easily it can be deployed and used
area where infrastructure like mail and roads may be in disorder.These devices, by the way, are not bought and paid for by the people who
the first pathogen the company is aiming to detect, but the system can just as easily detect several others simply by using different
disposable tests equipped with different primers
