The rising cost and poor accessibility of healthcare is a concern in developing and developed countries. Analysis is the corner stone of disease diagnosis and management. Development of robust diagnostics that enable decentralized analysis (at-home or at the point-of-care) is critical for changing the healthcare paradigm.
Currently, the patients need to visit the hospital, where they submit the specimen (i.e., blood or urine) to the clinical laboratory. The technicians then perform the test, and report the results back to physician or healthcare provider. This process is problematic because (i) the turnover of results is 4–5 hours at best, and is not sufficient for monitoring of patients in critical conditions (i.e., potential cardiac arrest), and (ii) approximately 50% of the world’s population live in rural areas where access to a trustable test laboratory and clinics is limited, and those patients who reside in urban settings have limited time and resources to frequently visit the hospital for checkups. Our research group develops tools for at-home and point-of-care analysis of biomarkers. These tools will be important for management of public health and delivering effective and timely diagnostics in emergency medicine.
Our lab takes advantage of ubiquitous materials such as paper and thread to create affordable and accessible diagnostics for point-of-care testing. What’s special about paper and yarn?
Paper and thread are promising materials for developing diagnostics accessible by “all of us” because they are (i) inexpensive, widely accessible, disposable by incineration (important for bio-contaminated diagnostics), (ii) can be easily patterned into hydrophobic and hydrophilic zones and can transport fluids through capillary wicking with no need for an external pump, (iii) offer high-volume manufacturing using printing, weaving, knitting, tape lay-up, and other highly developed prototyping and manufacturing methods.
We utilize electrochemical recognition to develop electrochemical sensors for metabolites, and protein markers. We are also interested in affordable sensors for micro-nutrients to help in prevention of diseases, as well as their treatment and diagnosis. Smartphone connectivity of electrochemical diagnostics is critical for their incorporation in the era of technology and internet. More than 35% of the global population are currently using smartphones, and this number is expected to rise, offering unique opportunities in mobile-based health care. We also develop smart-phone connected detectors and Apps for enabling at-home testing with no required technical knowledge.