Cambridge Consultants, a product design and development firm, just received a $1 million challenge grant from Massachusetts Life Sciences Center to develop a low-cost, point-of-care device that tests patients for the Ebola virus.
It’ll team up with the nonprofit Diagnostics for All to develop the Ebola-testing device in a matter of months to quickly deliver diagnostic results in areas where there’s little access to advanced medical care. Cambridge Consultants says:
Diagnosing Ebola, from a logistical perspective, is extremely challenging. Particularly in rural areas, it is a challenge to get patients to a clinic to have their blood drawn – and it must then be transferred to a lab and tested on specialty instrumentation by trained technicians. When results are obtained, health workers must then find the patient, who, if infected, could already be spreading the virus. Hours or days may pass between taking a blood sample and providing medical treatment.
When Investment Rhymes with Canada
Canada has a proud history of achievement in the areas of science and technology, and the field of biomanufacturing and life sciences is no exception.
The device that’s in the works is meant to allow a health worker to test on the spot, without a lab, and get results within an hour.
It’ll be a handheld, single-use disposable device that’s smaller than a deck of cards, Cambridge Consultants says. It’ll require a finger prick and a drop of blood – the rest of the diagnostic assay work churns within the device in about 45 minutes.
The projected cost of this cartridge will be $10 apiece.
