Scientists to Develop Device for Flu Diagnosis

GE Global Research has been awarded a program through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop a breakthrough medical device that can diagnose the flu and other infectious diseases such as malaria, Escherichia coli, and Salmonella at the point-of-care. In addition to making an accurate diagnosis, another key goal of the device is to be readily adaptable for new strains of diseases so that new diagnostic tests can be rapidly developed.

GE scientists will be partnering with InDevR, a rapidly-growing biotechnology company in Boulder, CO, which develops new tools to assist in disease diagnosis as well as in vaccine development. GE will be incorporating new materials and molecular biology methods into a device being developed by InDevR. The USD 5.8 million funding from DARPA for the project will result in the creation of at least seven new jobs at InDevR.

InDevR’s CEO and Chief Science Officer Kathy L. Rowlen, Ph.D., said, “The partnership offers a powerful combination of InDevR’s strengths in virus identification and instrument development with GE’s global leadership in healthcare products, technologies, and services.”

Erin Finehout, a lead engineer at GE Global Research and principal investigator on the DARPA project, said, “Today, the flu can be diagnosed in the doctor’s office, but often patient samples need to be sent out to a

 lab to confirm a diagnosis and provide more information about a patient’s condition. GE and InDevR intend to develop a device that brings this analysis to the point-of-care at the doctor’s office, a remote military base, or the site of a humanitarian mission responding to a major healthcare pandemic.”

GE and InDevR scientists are working to develop a device that is highly portable and easy to use and requires little training. This would allow a broader range of medical providers to operate the device and enable it to be used in clinical settings that would reach more people in need of care. DARPA is interested in hAir Jordan XVIII 18