Rice 360° is expanding Rice’s leading research programs in point-of-care diagnostics and point-of-use water treatment by leveraging Rice’s expertise in bioengineering and nanosensors, and its partnerships with the Texas Medical Center. Incorporating both of these research perspectives, which share common materials and questions, into the design of new global health technologies, holds especially transformative potential.
Advances in Point-of-Care Diagnostics Professor John McDevitt has developed lab-on-a-chip technology to diagnose and treat patients with HIV/AIDS by determining their CD4 cell levels quickly at the point of care. Professor McDevitt has replaced the flow cytometer, which costs approximately $50,000, with a toaster-sized device that costs about the same as a digital camera. This technology has been commercialized and will be released next year. When CD4 cell testing is done regularly and used to determine the appropriate therapy, life expectancy in HIV/AIDS patients can increase by up to 300%. Professors Tomasz Tkaczyk and Rebecca Richards-Kortum are also developing lab-on-a-chip technologies to detect viral load. These sensors are battery-powered, fit on top of a penny, and can reduce the cost of equipment to between $10 and $100. These technologies hold promise for meeting the challenge of diagnosing HIV-infected babies, who require very expensive tests different from those used on adults. Specialized HIV tests for infants have the potential to save the lives of more than 275,000 children each year. Similar sensors are being developed in partnership with researchers at the UT Medical Branch in Galveston to detect cryptosporidium, a parasite that causes diarrheal disease. Diarrhea is responsible for the deaths of two million children each year. | | .jpg)
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Advances in Point-of-Use Water Treatment
Professors Vicki Colvin, Mason Tomson, and Pedro Alvarez have developed a process for water disinfection using antimicrobial nano-particles that can be magnetically separated. This technology does not require expensive infrastructure; it can be used in family kitchens for less than pennies per gram. It holds great promise for preventing disease and improving health around the world. If waterborne diseases were eliminated, half of the world’s hospital beds would be empty.