Mobile phone-based diagnostic health test wins NIH tech accelerator prize

The NIH’s prize challenge encourages the development of new, non-invasive diagnostic technologies important for global health.

The Cornell team is led by Dr. Saurabh Mehta, associate professor in the Department of Global Development and the Division of Nutritional Sciences.

Other team members are David Erickson, the SC Thomas Sze Director and Sibley College Professor in Cornell’s Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; Julia L. Finkelstein, associate professor in the Department of Global Development and the Division of Nutritional Sciences; research associate Balaji Srinivasan; and postdoctoral associate Bryan Gannon.

For the group’s saliva-based test, a small 3D-printed adapter is clipped to a mobile phone and synced with a mobile app. The app uses the phone’s camera to image test strips to detect malaria, iron deficiency and inflammation, with results in under 15 minutes.

The proposal builds on the FeverPhone and NutriPhone platforms developed by the team at Cornell’s Institute for Nutritional Sciences, Global Health and Technology (INSiGHT). The technologies, funded by the NIH and the National Science Foundation, evaluate infections and nutritional status using blood.

According to Mehta, technologies using salivary biomarkers could revolutionize how conditions such as malaria and iron deficiency are identified and addressed, especially in settings where access to primary health care and traditional, laboratory-based tests is limited.

“This concept provides noninvasive, rapid and accurate results anywhere in the world,” Mehta said. “A breakthrough in such mobile diagnostics could provide untold health benefits for vulnerable populations globally.”

“These types of potentially world-changing innovations are only possible when you foster strong multidisciplinary research and a culture of innovation, such as we do here at Cornell,” Erickson said.

This story also appeared in the Cornell Chronicle.