Our Approach
Making a difference in the real world
There isn't a global system to continuously monitor the quality of pharmaceuticals, so it is hard to know how common these fake drugs are, how many patients are harmed by taking them, and how the bad medications are entering the supply chain. We want to help answer these questions by developing new types of tools for chemical analysis.
Asking different questions
We want to learn how to do the most science with the least "stuff". In a low resource setting, we cannot count on any of the technical infrastructure we normally have in a science lab. No electrical power--no chemicals or solvents—no trained people—no instruments. These constraints require creative solutions.
An interdisciplinary working group
We are scientists and engineers, faculty at large research institutions and small four year colleges, and students at all stages from high school through grad school. We work with pharmacists, manufacturers, regulatory agencies, and non-governmental agencies to solve problems which have been thought intractable due to resource limitations.