Development of a simple prognostic test for rheumatic heart disease

We aim to develop a simple prognostic tool for rheumatic heart disease. In the first phase of the project we aim to identify a set of
peptides that induce a pro-inflammatory cytokine response from T cells isolated from rheumatic heart disease patients in Salvador, Brazil. The development of a prognostic tool which is inexpensive, simple and portable will help neglected populations get the appropriate treatment and care necessary to prevent severe outcomes from this preventable and neglected disease.

A point-of-care malaria drug resistance assay

We propose to develop a palm-sized microfluidic device which permits culturing of malaria-infected red blood cells under physiological conditions in suspension. The extent of parasitemia is determined by a label-free magneto-optic technique. Such a device will enable point-of-care antibiotic resistance assays for testing different malarial strains primarily targeting countries in the developing world.