Improving access to high quality medicines is a huge global problem, and both technological and economic solutions are needed. Students Sean McGee, Luke Smith, Chase Lane, and Valeriano Lima have taken a hard look at the economics of paper analytical devices (PADs) for testing pharmaceuticals,…
The PAD project was featured in "Check it out," a Fox News series about science and technology that's making people's lives better.
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Detailed information about components of falsified pharmaceuticals helps to identify the types of fake medicines circulating in a country, and may shed light on the manufacturing processes and possible sources of the drug components. Dr. Mandal joins the PAD project in March of 2014 to develop new tools to analyze fake medicines found in low resource settings.
What do you do when the airport burns down and you have to get your film crew, expensive camera equipment, student, and professor out of the country?
Senior chemical engineering major Sara Dale presented two poster sessions during the American Chemical Society (ACS) meeting in September about her work on the PAD Project. One session focused on general analytical chemistry and the other was called Sci-mix, a large session that highlighted a few posters from each division of the meeting.
Nicholas Myers and Abigail Weaver recently demonstrated paper devices at the Center for Analytical Instrument Development (CAID) 6th annual meeting on the campus of Purdue University.
Emalee Kernisan, a senior science-business major, has been working on the PAD project since fall 2012. Recently, her role on the project has involved analyzing the exterior packaging of pharmaceuticals sent to the lab from Kenya and checking the medication first hand for anything suspicious. The process to determine the authenticity of the pills includes photographing the pills, ensuring that the samples are all similar, and reviewing the information listed on the packaging to identify any misspellings and inaccurate information.
ELDORET, KENYA — At the Moi University Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH), it is not uncommon to see the same patient more than once. But what if it is not sickness causing the patient to return to the waiting room once a week? What if it is because the drugs given do not actually contain medication?In a 2005 survey conducted by National Quality Control Laboratories, 30 percent of all drugs distributed to the public were counterfeit. Counterfeit drugs are a huge problem. But now a device called the Paper Analytical Device (PAD) is being piloted in Kenya by the pharmacists employed at the MTRH.
I presented a poster at the ACS meeting in Indianapolis, IN on September 8 titled, “Iodate Quantification in Fortified Salt Using a Paper Analytical Device.” The PAD can measure part per million (ppm) levels of iodine, which is like jumping into a sea of a million red balls and coming back up with the single green ball!
Abigail Weaver recently presented a talk entitled, Fast paper-based technology for qualitative pharmaceutical testing, at the Fall 2013 American Chemical Society National meeting. She highlighted previous work showing that paper-based tests perform well in the lab, greater than 90% sensitivity, in the identification of beta-lactam and anti-tuberculosis medications.
Marya and I traveled to Kenya in July 2013. Traveling to labs in the developing world is necessary because this allows us to see the existing limitations and how we need to construct PADs around these limitations.
Marya Lieberman, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame, and her collaborators have recently published results that show the effectiveness of an inexpensive paper test card that could fundamentally change the balance of power between pharmaceutical buyers and sellers in the developing world.
Marya Lieberman, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame, has collaborated with faculty and students to demonstrate advances in paper analytical devices (PADs) to test for counterfeit drugs. The promising low-tech solution has received broad attention in the scientific community. Lieberman’s work was featured in Chemical and Engineering News and presented recently at the American Chemical Society’s 244th National Meeting in Philadelphia.
This past June, Lieberman and graduate student Abigail Weaver were invited to present at a workshop in Nairobi, Kenya. The Gates Foundation and Grand Challenges Canada funded the workshop that brought U.S. researchers together with African academics and policy makers to survey state-of-the-art diagnostics designed for use in low-resource settings — such as clinics that do not have reliable electrical power.
The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry launched the Nicholas C. Angelotti Undergraduate Research Fund in Analytical Chemistry with a lecture by Tim Angelotti, a researcher and associate professor at the Stanford School of Medicine, followed by a few words from David Angelotti who spoke about his father. The Angelotti family established the Nicholas Angelotti Undergraduate Research Endowment for Excellence in 2005. Earnings for the endowment will support summer studentships, beginning this summer in Professor Marya Lieberman’s laboratory.
The Indiana Clinical and Translational Science Institute has announced the recipients of its biannual program to provide small grants to investigators whose project will benefit from to access cutting-edge scientific expertise and technology. Two of the faculty are from the College of Science. Giles Duffield, assistant professor of biological sciences, and Marya Lieberman, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, have received awards.
A collaborative research program involving faculty, graduate students, undergraduates and high school teachers and students is working to develop low–tech field tests for chemicals, with numerous applications in developing countries. The effort is led by six Notre Dame faculty members — Marya Lieberman, Holly Goodson, and Graham Lappin of Chemistry and Biochemistry; Patrick Flynn of Computer Science and Engineering; and David Go of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering — with collaborators Toni Barstis at Saint Mary’s College and George Twaddle at Ivy Tech Community College. The project is affiliated with the Advanced Diagnostics and Therapeutics Initiative and the Eck Center for Global Health.
