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Developing inexpensive, accurate, non-invasive technology for rapid detection of Dengue

Developing inexpensive

Dengue poses a major public health problem in many countries around the world, including Singapore. There are an estimated 390 million dengue infections globally every year. Patients contracting dengue for a second time might get haemorrhagic fever that can result in death. There is no available vaccine which can provide stable immunity against all four variants of the virus. A rapid, inexpensive and accurate detection technology which could be used for point-of-care detection would enable faster treatment and go a long way in dealing with this common infectious disease.

At EmTech Asia 2017, Professor Jackie Y. Ying (Prof. Ying's research is interdisciplinary in nature, focused on the synthesis of advanced nanostructured materials for catalytic and biomaterial applications), Executive Director, Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, A*STAR presented work being done on using nanotechnology for creating a non-invasive diagnostic device.

At some later stage, it might be possible to buy one of these easy-to-use, paper strips from your local pharmacy and conduct the test yourself at home, using saliva.

The technology involves Lateral Flow Immunoassay, where simple devices are used to detect the presence (or absence) of a target analyte in a sample without the need for specialized and costly equipment, using a series of capillary beds, such as pieces of porous paper or polymers (Common application would be the pregnancy test).

You could potentially get results within 10 minutes. However, this kind of technology is not currently widely applicable. When implemented on paper it takes a couple of hours. The team also wants to make the test as non-invasive as possible, by using saliva instead of blood samples.

The challenge with using salivary fluids is that it contains a lot of proteinaceous substances, which smudge the paper.

Prof. Ying said, “What we would like to do is to figure out a way to use nanoparticles to make paper based assays far more capable for detection of various different diseases including dengue.”

To deal with these challenges, Prof. Ying is working on a different kind of device where the sample and reagent (the substance or compound added to a system to cause a chemical reaction, or added to test if a reaction occurs) are separated to flow along two different paths.

The reagent in this case, which is nanoparticles, flows along the reagent path. The sample will flow through the sample path. And all the proteinaceous substances are filtered out on the filter paper, before it reaches the flow regulator and arrives at the test strip to react with the nanoparticles and generate results.

Uniform flow can be achieved with this technology and it gives a nice, sharp line instead of smudging the paper, like in a conventional lateral flow by the use of saliva.

Dengue Detection using saliva sample nanoparticle technology

Both the above tests have the control (the control shows that reaction conditions and technology are working as they are supposed to) line but only the first person has the test line, indicating dengue infection. The current technology takes around 20 minutes to provide results. Ongoing efforts are working to get it down to 10 minutes.

Prof. Ying also talked about using this type of technology for urine samples and testing using blood from finger pinpricks, reducing the volume of blood required form 100 microliters to 5 microliters. Urine sample has been found to be a potential source for detecting Zika.

In addition to infectious disease diagnosis, there could be applications in metabolic syndrome studies, kidney and liver function, detecting toxins, GMO identification and even complex genetic tests. All on a simple piece of paper. 

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Qlik’s vision is a data-literate world, where everyone can use data and analytics to improve decision-making and solve their most challenging problems. A private company, Qlik offers real-time data integration and analytics solutions, powered by Qlik Cloud, to close the gaps between data, insights and action. By transforming data into Active Intelligence, businesses can drive better decisions, improve revenue and profitability, and optimize customer relationships. Qlik serves more than 38,000 active customers in over 100 countries.

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CTC Global Singapore, a premier end-to-end IT solutions provider, is a fully owned subsidiary of ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (CTC) and ITOCHU Corporation.

Since 1972, CTC has established itself as one of the country’s top IT solutions providers. With 50 years of experience, headed by an experienced management team and staffed by over 200 qualified IT professionals, we support organizations with integrated IT solutions expertise in Autonomous IT, Cyber Security, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure, Workplace Modernization and Professional Services.

Well-known for our strengths in system integration and consultation, CTC Global proves to be the preferred IT outsourcing destination for organizations all over Singapore today.

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Planview has one mission: to build the future of connected work. Our solutions enable organizations to connect the business from ideas to impact, empowering companies to accelerate the achievement of what matters most. Planview’s full spectrum of Portfolio Management and Work Management solutions creates an organizational focus on the strategic outcomes that matter and empowers teams to deliver their best work, no matter how they work. The comprehensive Planview platform and enterprise success model enables customers to deliver innovative, competitive products, services, and customer experiences. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with locations around the world, Planview has more than 1,300 employees supporting 4,500 customers and 2.6 million users worldwide. For more information, visit www.planview.com.

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SIRIM is a premier industrial research and technology organisation in Malaysia, wholly-owned by the Minister​ of Finance Incorporated. With over forty years of experience and expertise, SIRIM is mandated as the machinery for research and technology development, and the national champion of quality. SIRIM has always played a major role in the development of the country’s private sector. By tapping into our expertise and knowledge base, we focus on developing new technologies and improvements in the manufacturing, technology and services sectors. We nurture Small Medium Enterprises (SME) growth with solutions for technology penetration and upgrading, making it an ideal technology partner for SMEs.

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HashiCorp provides infrastructure automation software for multi-cloud environments, enabling enterprises to unlock a common cloud operating model to provision, secure, connect, and run any application on any infrastructure. HashiCorp tools allow organizations to deliver applications faster by helping enterprises transition from manual processes and ITIL practices to self-service automation and DevOps practices. 

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IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

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