OT: Need help (votes) from Steeler Nation!

[Flasteel]

Re: OT: Need help (votes) from Steeler Nation!

I know that this is off topic, but I need your help.

I'm a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Toronto. I've applied for funding for the research I'm doing to develop a portable diagnostic device to detect diseases like TB in Africa where they have no access to medical diagnostic laboratories.

Part of the grant evaluation process is public engagement. This is evaulated based on votes for short videos we developed.

Please check out (and vote for) my video at ([url]http://gcc.eyeptv.net/category/point-of-care-diagnostics/page/2/[/url]).

Mine is the video titled "A droplet based microfluidic device for point of care medical diagnostics". Second from the top.

Thanks everyone, I appreciate your time!

I was the Keisel vote!

Very impressive stuff brother. You kept referencing "diseases like TB" and I was wondering if your device is capable of testing for other diseases...especially those with shorter incubation periods or those that are viral. If so, this could have huge implications! Way better than the other proposals on that page, regardless of any limitations on other disease detection.

[RuthlessBurgher]

Re: OT: Need help (votes) from Steeler Nation!

I tried to vote for you multiple times.

It's good to know there's intelligent people in our midst. Unfortunately I'm in the knuckle dragger category, but I feel smarter by association

I'm personally responsible for increasing flippy's IQ by 5 points.

Unfortunately, he decreased my IQ by 15 points first.

[hawaiiansteel]

Re: OT: Need help (votes) from Steeler Nation!

I tried to vote for you multiple times.

It's good to know there's intelligent people in our midst. Unfortunately I'm in the knuckle dragger category, but I feel smarter by association

I'm personally responsible for increasing flippy's IQ by 5 points.

Unfortunately, he decreased my IQ by 15 points first.

congratulations Michael, I see you've reached triple digits and we've run out of Steelers numbers for you...

and if flippy's IQ has been decreased by 5 points, does that now put him in negative territory?

[Northern_Blitz]

Re: OT: Need help (votes) from Steeler Nation!

I was the Keisel vote!

Very impressive stuff brother. You kept referencing "diseases like TB" and I was wondering if your device is capable of testing for other diseases...especially those with shorter incubation periods or those that are viral. If so, this could have huge implications! Way better than the other proposals on that page, regardless of any limitations on other disease detection.

Thanks for the question Flatsteel.

The video focuses on TB because it's a real problem in developing areas like Africa (which Grand Challenges is particularly concerned with). But, the device is easily reconfigurable to screen for different diseases. It basically performs an immunoassay (similar to ELISA). It should be able to detect any protein biomarker that you can get an antibody for, so if a disease has a known biomarker that shows up in blood, saliva, or urine we should be able to test for it. None of the device hardware would need to change to make this happen, only the fluids hooked up to the device (reagents).

In addition to the test I talk about in the video, I think the device would have applicaitons screening travellers for communicable diseases (things like SARS / bird flu / swine flu) or it could be used by front line healthcare workers as a rapid test to look for biomarkers for cancer.

Of course, this is all provided that the device works. The biggest hurdle I'll have in the next year or so will be demonstrating the sensitivy of the device.

[Flasteel]

Re: OT: Need help (votes) from Steeler Nation!

I was the Keisel vote!

Very impressive stuff brother. You kept referencing "diseases like TB" and I was wondering if your device is capable of testing for other diseases...especially those with shorter incubation periods or those that are viral. If so, this could have huge implications! Way better than the other proposals on that page, regardless of any limitations on other disease detection.

Thanks for the question Flatsteel.

The video focuses on TB because it's a real problem in developing areas like Africa (which Grand Challenges is particularly concerned with). But, the device is easily reconfigurable to screen for different diseases. It basically performs an immunoassay (similar to ELISA). It should be able to detect any protein biomarker that you can get an antibody for, so if a disease has a known biomarker that shows up in blood, saliva, or urine we should be able to test for it. None of the device hardware would need to change to make this happen, only the fluids hooked up to the device (reagents).

In addition to the test I talk about in the video, I think the device would have applicaitons screening travellers for communicable diseases (things like SARS / bird flu / swine flu) or it could be used by front line healthcare workers as a rapid test to look for biomarkers for cancer.

Of course, this is all provided that the device works. The biggest hurdle I'll have in the next year or so will be demonstrating the sensitivy of the device.

If you don't mind me asking, what preliminary tests or known facts are indicating this will be a success? Is it simply the size of the droplet or sample yielding a quicker response? Are you currently bound by technology to isolate a small enough sample that you can run an immunoassay on? Just curious, I don't know a lot about this kind of stuff, but it sounds like it's do-able.

[Northern_Blitz]

Re: OT: Need help (votes) from Steeler Nation!

If you don't mind me asking, what preliminary tests or known facts are indicating this will be a success? Is it simply the size of the droplet or sample yielding a quicker response? Are you currently bound by technology to isolate a small enough sample that you can run an immunoassay on? Just curious, I don't know a lot about this kind of stuff, but it sounds like it's do-able.

I definately don't mind the question. Like all reasearch geeks, I think it's cool when people are actually interested in what I'm doing.

There are many reasons why I think that this idea will work, but I'll go through the biggest ones.

1. The small length scales make reaction times happen faster. So, if we mix reagents in small droplets together, the reactions happen faster. This has been shown in channels with at least 1 dimension of 1 mm or smaller, and in small droplets like I use. Since the device can be small and self contained, we don`t need a sterile high tech lab.

2. Work by our group and other groups using the same mechanism for driving the droplets have shown that it is possible to move "biological fluids" without damaging the proteins.

3. What's left was to design the actual device and figure out how the process would be performed. There were two big issues in the design that I needed solutions for (1) automating the ability to sense droplet composition and chemical reactions in the droplet in real time and (2) developing a method to "filtering" the droplet (like washing the reaction surface in the traditional process). The work I've done so far developed new solutions for these issues. Now what I need to do is put the pieces together, show that we can do the protocol, and determine the sensitivity and cycle time of the device.

I think it should be a very interesting year for this project and funding from this grant would really help us to develop a prototype and get it in front of the right people to see how we can get it on the ground in places that it could make a difference.

[flippy]

Re: OT: Need help (votes) from Steeler Nation!

I tried to vote for you multiple times.

It's good to know there's intelligent people in our midst. Unfortunately I'm in the knuckle dragger category, but I feel smarter by association

I'm personally responsible for increasing flippy's IQ by 5 points.

Unfortunately, he decreased my IQ by 15 points first.

But Northern Blitz should have upped you by about 20 pts so it should work out

[steeler_fan_in_t.o.]

Re: OT: Need help (votes) from Steeler Nation!

From one Torontonian to another you have my +1