Biosciences Research Management
Research
Solutions and Products are in various stages of development.
We conduct multiple phases of research: pre-award through innovation and RDT&E through technology translation and transfer.
BRM innovations provide substantially different and improved pre-analytical and analytical systems and methods to achieve efficacious detection of infectious agents from diverse biological samples – clinical and epidemiological, zoonotic, arthropod and tick vectors, food and environmental (e.g. water, surface swabs, soil). Including, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and healthcare-associated infection (HAI) agents.
Research Interests
1. Infectious disease agent diagnostic and surveillance and transmission control systems and methods providing for wide and sustainable uses in resource limited settings.
2. Solutions for simple, low cost, biostable, biosafe, sensitive and specific field-expedient direct detection from low pathogen concentration biological samples.
3. Aid in informing decisions by medical care providers and public health practitioners early enough for medical treatment and disease control strategies to succeed.
Disease Priorities: Malaria, dengue, chikungunya, Zika, Japanese encephalitis, neglected tropical diseases, diarrheal (viral and bacterial), leishmaniasis, leptospirosis, and rickettsioses.
Biological Sample Priorities
1. Non-invasively obtained acute phase samples (saliva and urine).
2. Arthropod surveillance samples collected in pre-elimination and low transmission regions.
Approach: Novel biological sample collection, pathogen enrichment and biostabilization, and biosafety pre-analytical technologies designed to mitigate false negative results combined with high affinity synthetic antibody designed to exceed the sensitivity and specificity of current commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) RDTs.
Other Focus Areas in Development
Mosquito Control: Specialized systems and methods for simple, low cost, biostable, biosafe, mosquito control.
Biosafety: Assess and evaluate laboratory biosafety needs, conduct training including the translation of study and presentation materials, preparation for NSF Biosafety Cabinet Field Certifier Accreditation primarily in developing regions.
Research support activities include the preparation of: funding applications and institutional oversight documents, Institutional Review Board protocol (US and local Ministry of Health), standard operating procedure (SOP), study specific procedure (SSP), results databases, progress and final reports.