Hand-held device detects malaria

LONDON – Researchers at St. George’s, University of London launched September 26, 2012 the €5.2 million Nanomal project, which plans to provide an affordable hand-held device for the swift diagnosis of malaria infection and drug resistance of the parasites.

The device is the size and shape of a mobile phone, and will use a range of nanotechnologies for the rapid analysis of parasite DNA from a blood sample. A malaria diagnosis and comprehensive screening for drug susceptibility can then be provided in less than 20 minutes.

The Nanomal consortium is being led by St. George’s, University of London, in partnership with UK handheld diagnostics and DNA sequencing specialist QuantuMDx Group and teams at the University of Tuebingen in Germany, and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. The European Commission has awarded €4 million to the project.

“Recent research suggests there’s a real danger that artemisinins could eventually become obsolete, in the same way as other anti-malarials. New drug treatments take many years to develop, so the quickest and cheapest alternative is to optimise the use of current drugs. The huge advances in technology are now giving us a tremendous opportunity to do that and to avoid people falling seriously ill or dying unnecessarily,” said Nanomal lead Professor Sanjeev Krishna, from St George’s.

Elaine Warburton, CEO of QuantuMDx, said: “Placing a full malaria screen with drug resistance status in the palm of a health professional’s hand will allow instant prescribing of the most effective anti-malaria medication for that patient. Nanomal’s rapid, low-cost test will further support the global health challenge to eradicate malaria.”