Indian-American Team Wins Rs 74 Lakh For Developing Phone-Based Saliva System

New York: A Cornell University research team has won 100,000 (Rs 74 lakh approx) in prize money for developing a quick, non-invasive, mobile phone-based system to detect infectious diseases as well as inflammation and nutritional deficiencies in saliva.

The team, led by Saurabh Mehta, was awarded the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Technology Accelerator Challenge prize.

Saliva biomarkers could revolutionize how conditions such as malaria and iron deficiency are identified and addressed, Mehta said. It is specially useful in places where access to primary health care and traditional, laboratory-based tests is limited.

A small 3D-printed adapter is attached to a phone for the test. The app uses the phone’s camera to image test strips to detect malaria, iron deficiency and inflammation, and gives results in under 15 minutes.

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