This post originally appeared on the Humanity in Science Award website.
Visit www.humanityinscienceaward.com to learn more.
Congratulations, Waseem Asghar!
Florida Atlantic University Assistant Professor Waseem Asghar has identified a new paper and flexible material-based diagnostic biosensing platform that could be used to remotely detect and determine treatment options for HIV, E. coli, Staphylococcus aureas and other pathogens.
“According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 35 million people are living with HIV and more than 1.5 million died of AIDS. HIV has become one of the most devastating pathogens in human history causing 25 million deaths and it remains the leading cause of death in Africa.
More than 95 percent of HIV infections are in developing countries, two-thirds of them in sub-Saharan Africa, where 28 million people are living with HIV. Although antiretroviral therapy (ART) is effective in saving AIDS patients’ lives, the implementation of ART worldwide has been drastically hampered by the lack of treatment monitoring diagnostics and disease management.
Using a drop of blood from a fingerprick, [Asghar’s] novel biosensing platform provides clinically relevant specificity, sensitivity and detection of pathogens from whole blood and plasma. Using paper and flexible substrates as materials for biosensors, Asghar and his collaborators identified a new rapid and cost-effective way to diagnose diseases and monitor treatment in point-of-care settings.”
Find out how you could be the next Humanity in Science Award winner here.
Related resources:
• Humanity in Science: Optimizing Diagnostics of Rare Diseases in Newborns
• Humanity in Science: Accelerating Detection in Early Stages of Heart Attacks
• Humanity in Science: Combating Counterfeit with Capillary Electrophoresis
• Humanity in Science Award Winners Announced by Phenomenex and The Analytical Scientist