"Grand Challenges Exploration Grant" for Prof. Tamar Kohn
© 2011 EPFL
Prof. Tamar Kohn has been awarded a "Grand Challenges Exploration Grant" by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to conduct a preliminary study on poliovirus detection and differentiation.
Grand Challenges Explorations fosters creative projects that show great promise to improve the health of people in the developing world. On November 7, 2011, more than 100 researchers were awarded new Grand Challenges Explorations grants.
Peter Vikesland of Virginia Polytechnical Institute in the U.S., along with Tamar Kohn of EPFL and Krista Wigginton of the University of Maryland, will develop a paper-based diagnostic in which inkjets imprint channels on paper to force water samples to detection zones where inkjet printer-embedded nanoparticles react to the presence of different poliovirus strains. This low-cost device could be used for point-of-use poliovirus screening.