BOSTON, Massachusetts – On July 7, 2015 in Boston, Massachusetts, Dr. Anita Goel won the Galactic Grant Competition to support the Nanobiosym Research Institute. This facility is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and was founded and is led by Dr. Anita Goel. The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) and the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) found that Nanobiosym is a groundbreaking innovation essential to tackling difficult to detect and drug-resistant health problems.
The United Kingdom’s National Health Service has observed that more than 50 percent of Ebola patients’ conditions improve when they are merely hydrated. Rural Africa needs real-time diagnostics to prevent spreading the virus and needs proper sanitization. Villages can only receive diagnosis from expensive and massive laboratories close to home.
When an Ebola patient is being treated, odds are they have been in contact with the outside world for 10-21 days before a fever directed them to the nearest medical clinic. Dr. Anita Goel, inventor of the Gene-RADAR medical diagnostic tool, is improving its ability to diagnose a bug in real-time with the help of the International Space Station (ISS). She sends her research into space so scientists can easily study the genetic-makeup of certain disease and viruses for the benefit of Gene-RADAR’s diagnostic applications.
CASIS approves of innovations to send to the ISS based on the “Good Health” project where interdisciplinary organizations develop methods to improve conditions of human health. The ISS tries to understand aging, environmental hazards, viruses and trauma. Improvements in telemedicine, nutrition, cell behavior, and environmental health stem from the ISS. Pharmaceutical companies using this space lab target specific struggles with protein and drugs, disease modeling, gene expression and technology experimentation.
The location of their laboratory is in Low Earth Orbit, which creates “microgravity.” This is a substantial environment that hastens the mutation process of a few bacteria. Each stage of the mutation can be studied and recorded into the Gene-RADAR’s applications.
There were over 2,519 deaths from Ebola in Guinea in 2014. Sierra Leone suffered a loss of 3,951. Liberia, as of March 9th 2014, witnessed 4,806 deaths to Ebola. Quest Diagnostics, LabCorp, ARUP Laboratories, and Mayo Medical Laboratories deny any substance that may contain Ebola for research. Studying the bacteria in its primary location where infrastructure is unstable makes risk inevitable.
The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is the 20-year-old technology researching Ebola and recognizing it in the blood. These places rely on trained workers, expensive machinery, clean water, access to sanitization methods and consistent energy. It has very accurate diagnostic capabilities.
The PCR requires a tube of blood and processing and takes two to six hours, costing families $100 each. Access to these laboratories is not available for everyone. There are a limited number of laboratories people can reach across hazardous routes. Unfair as conditions are, viruses also mimic each other resulting in misdiagnosis of the flu, malaria, dengue and Ebola.
The Gene-RADAR eliminates hassle. Nanobiophysics mobilizes medical diagnosis with Gene-RADAR that will extract DNA and RNA from someone and compare it to the DNA and RNA of the virus in question. It detects with accuracy and precision the genetic variables of pathogens. Blood tests for HIV often cost $200 or $300 and days of waiting, yet the Gene-RADAR identifies the virus in an hour for $10.
This device has the capability to diagnose four billion people who do not have access to regular diagnostic laboratories. The Gene-RADAR takes samples of DNA through blood or saliva. It will then anticipate how the bacteria will advance and it informs the recipients what treatments, therapeutics or vaccines will halt further infection.
Early detection might save someone from 50,000 to 100,000 copies of Ebola spreading throughout their bodies. There are underdeveloped regions in Africa that need to improve their conditions to help eliminate the virus but are facing great strain while the virus is spreading uncontrollably. Goel’s Gene-RADAR and the ISS plan is to contain the consistent problem by isolating the virus quickly and keep it from spreading.
Relying on a symptom to appear firsthand is not efficient. Gene-RADAR can detect a virus without a symptom in sight. This will be especially beneficial to hospitals, small towns and rural areas. The Galactic Grant will promise an economic turning point. In an article written by TEDxArms Blogsquad, Goel sustains that the mission of these innovations “is to align scientific technologies and private sector enterprise with a global humanitarian mission.”
Sources: Global Post, NASA, Wired, Business Wire, CDC, TED, WHO, The Guardian, Space Ref
Photo: Flickr