The Future of Global Health

Numerous institutions and individuals are interested in delivering healthcare in low-income countries. CIMIT itself is moving forward with its own global health initiative. On Jan. 8, the topic of the CIMIT Forum at Simches Center at Massachusetts General Hospital was “The Future of Global Health.”

Two CIMIT-funded researchers discussed their work relating to diagnostic testing utilizing microfluidic technology directed at conditions ranging from avian flu to HIV. They said microfluidics holds promise to allow rapid and inexpensive diagnostic testing in settings without supportive laboratory infrastructure or personnel.

Moderating was Kristian Olson, MD, MPH, who heads the CIMIT Global Initiative while serving as senior advisor of the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Global Health. Dr. Olson is developing incubators from spare auto parts for medical centers in emerging countries, while directing CIMIT and MGH initiatives overseas.

Dr. Catherine Klapperich, PhD, assistant professor of manufacturing and biomedical engineering at Boston University, spoke on “Disposable Molecular Diagnostics: Microfluidic Laboratories for the Field.”

She discussed the formulation, fabrication and testing of microfluidic solid phase extraction columns based on polymer monoliths impregnated with nanoparticulate inclusions for protein and nucleic acid isolation for patient samples.

Dr. Klapperich also addressed practical concerns about the direct use of patient samples (blood, urine, saliva and stool).

Utkan Demirci, Phd, instructor of medicine and health sciences and technology, Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Bio-Acoustic-MEMS in Medicine, also spoke.

His topic was “Disposable, Point-of-Care Microchips for CD4 Counts in Resource Limited Settings.”

Dr. Demirci said that his team’s objective is to develop novel point-of-care low-cost diagnostics to bridge emerging engineering nano- and micro-scale solutions to HIV-infected patients. The lab’s target is a point-of-care, low cost disposable, microfluidic device that uses a fingerstick blood sample and produces a CD4 count rapidly with on-chip sample handling and will accelerate CD4 counting in resource-limited settings.  

Disposable Molecular Diagnostics: Microfluidic Laboratories for the Field

The impact of infectious disease on resource poor areas of the world is devastating. It is unlikely that the financial climate surrounding drug development for diseases prevalent in third world countries will soon change. Our best approach at dealing with some of these diseases will be prevention efforts assisted by the widespread availability of inexpensive and accurate diagnostics. Probes to amplify and identify microbial or viral nucleic acids are available for almost every well known disease vector. Assays for serum antibodies to many organisms are also well documented. Dedicated engineering of test protocols (patient sample preparation, dilutions, washing, blocking, and detection) and devices is required to move these technologies out of the research laboratory and into the field where they can have a more immediate impact on world health. Catherine Klapperich’s team is focused on designing and prototyping disposable microfluidic platforms to enable molecular diagnostic testing using patient samples in locations far from a full service laboratory. Device design goals are low production costs, long shelf lives and relative ease of use. This talk will cover the formulation, fabrication and testing of microfluidic solid phase extraction columns based on polymer monoliths impregnated with nanoparticulate inclusions for protein and nucleic acid isolation from patient samples. Mammalian and bacterial cell lysis in microfluidic chips will be covered in addition to a discussion of strategies for micro and nanoscale enzyme linked immunosorbent assays. Practical concerns about the direct use of patient samples (blood, urine, saliva, and stool) will also be addressed.

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