Sally McFall
Northwestern University, IL·Biomedical Engineering
Many infectious diseases can be treated, but only if they are diagnosed first. In places without laboratories, diagnosis is often the weakest link.
- Fields
Biomedical Engineering
Medicine & Clinical Research
Public Health & Epidemiology
- Topics
point-of-care diagnostics
POC testing
hepatitis C
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Jul 2029
What they work on
- Develop a DASH platform test that detects hepatitis C viral RNA from a fingerstick blood sample in 15 minutes, so active infection can be diagnosed in a single step without a laboratory.
- Evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the DASH HCV test on stored plasma and prospectively collected whole blood at three clinical sites in Nigeria, where infection rates and viral diversity are high.
- Build a pipeline of point-of-care diagnostic technologies for people living with HIV in low-resource settings by identifying needs, recruiting and mentoring projects, and moving devices to clinical evaluation.
- Support home-grown diagnostic device development with African biomedical engineering partners in Nigeria, Tanzania, Mali, Senegal and South Africa, focusing on low-cost tests that work without reliable electricity or refrigeration.
More about the research
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is an example. It infects over 58 million people, and HCV-related cirrhosis or liver cancer kills about 300,000 people each year. The common theme of this work is building fast, simple, low-cost diagnostic tests that work at the point of care (POC), in clinics with little infrastructure, in Africa and in underserved U.S. communities.
Why it matters
A cheap, portable test that confirms active hepatitis C in one visit could let patients start curative treatment right away. This may reduce liver cancer in Nigeria and other low- and middle-income countries. It could also help people who inject drugs, people experiencing homelessness, incarcerated people and rural U.S. communities. Rugged, low-cost devices could likewise improve care for people living with HIV where labs are scarce.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Samuel K Sia
Columbia University, NY·Biomedical Engineering
Integrate plasma filtration from whole blood and PRECISE magnetic bead nucleic-acid extraction with plasmonic PCR to create a sample-to-answer hepatitis C RNA test.
Saurabh Mehta
Cornell University, NY·Public Health & Epidemiology
Enable testing of point-of-care diagnostic devices on human samples and patients by providing access to biobanks and diverse patient groups at partner sites in New York, Uganda, Ecuador and India.
Waseem Asghar
Florida Atlantic University, FL·Biomedical Engineering
Develop a disposable microchip that selectively detects HIV-1 directly from whole blood samples, rather than detecting antibodies against the virus.
The school
Northwestern University: 71 labs on PI Pages, $1.3B a year on research, 536 research doctorates a year.
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