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Leishmaniasis RDT Cartridge and Mobile Pocket Analyzer

Award type :
Product Development Award
Product type :
Diagnostics
Award year :
2020
Project start date :
08 / 11 / 2020
Project end date :
02 / 29 / 2024
Project duration (months) :
42
Development stage :
Early Validation
Target disease :
Leishmaniasis
Region served :
Ethiopia, Kenya, Brazil, World
Recipient organization / Country of funding recipient organization :
Biosquare / Republic of Korea
Collaborator(s) / Country :
Institut Pasteur Korea (IPK) / Republic of Korea, OptiBio / Republic of Korea, Center for Innovative Drug Development and Therapeutic Trials for Africa (CDT-Africa) / Ethiopia, Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) / Switzerland
Funding amount(KRW) :
1,600,189,618

BioSquare is working with DNDi (Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative), CDT-Africa, OptiBio, and Institut Pasteur Korea to develop a point-of-care (POC) rapid diagnostic test (RDT) with high-temperature stability, high-sensitivity and accuracy for the detection of human visceral leishmaniasis (VL) with no strain bias. The RDT will be accompanied by a small mobile analyzer with wireless connectivity for use in low-resource settings. Early detection and prompt treatment are critical in reducing the 70,000 estimated annual deaths from VL. However, timely detection of VL is severely limited due to varying sensitivities and regional biases of currently existing POC RDTs. A more sensitive, non-biased diagnostic test would significantly improve current VL outcomes.