Every Year Thousands of newborns and young children die from gastro intestinal illnesses, primarily in developing countries. Some of these deaths are due to bacterial illnesses that cause diarrhea. Antibiogram tests are performed to determine which bacterium is causing the diarrhea so that an appropriate antibiotic can be used against it.
Antibiogram tests are traditionally performed in a lab, which in developing countries can be few and far between resulting in testing being out of reach for most patients.
BCIT researchers from PART and the SoHS applied to the BCIT Internal Research Fund and were successful in securing a $25,000 grant to begin developing a portable antibiogram test as part of a larger portable diagnostic lab concept. The researchers worked with students from BCIT, Emily Carr and Cornell University to find a way to scale the test down so that it can be conducted on site, in essence creating a point-of-care test.
The following video was submitted to Grand Challenges 2013 grant competition to continue the development of a Portable Diagnostic Lab that builds on the work done to date as well as developing new partnerships with the Canada-India Network Society and the Public Health Foundation of India.
For further information please contact research@bcit.ca
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