Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS
Content archived on 2024-05-29

Novel Magneto-Optical Biosensors for Malaria Diagnosis

Objective

The objective of this proposal is to develop new, fast and effective instrumentation for the diagnosis of malaria by a non-invasive methodology that permits the precise in-vivo analysis of certain specific blood characteristics. It is prompted by the devastating effects of malaria on health and national economies in the third world, the threat to southern European states following climate change. The malarial parasite is known to modify the magnetic properties of red blood in proportion to the degree of infection through conversion of haemoglobin to haemozoin thus changing the magnetic properties.

This proposal will investigate these changed magnetisation states using both the magneto-optical and magneto-thermal interactions of blood as a basis for a potential bio-sensing system for malaria. Currently the most common method of diagnosing malaria is by observation of infected blood using microscopy by trained microscopists. This is time consuming and cannot be accomplished in the field.

The project objectives are two prototype instruments:
1) A portable instrument based on electronic measurement of the magneto-optic response of a blood sample.
2) A completely non-invasive instrument requiring no blood sample and hence avoiding potential cross-infection and HIV issues.

This project will attempt to break new ground in the field of medical diagnosis using magneto-optics and photonics to access information from biological samples that can therefore be interrogated electronically and potentially non-invasively. The use of these techniques is not confined to malaria diagnosis, having wider application for longer-term development in providing a means of interrogating the condition of biological samples where diseased states (cancerous tissues, leukaemia, diabetes) can be identified from fluctuations in magneto-optical or thermal behaviour. A 3-year project is planned involving 7 partners from 5 EU countries.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

Data not available

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

STREP - Specific Targeted Research Project

Coordinator

UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
EU contribution
No data
Address
NORTHCOTE HOUSE, THE QUEENS DRIVE
EX4 4QJ EXETER
United Kingdom

See on map

Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

No data

Participants (6)

My booklet 0 0