FOR many people in developing countries, being creative with what little they have is part of daily life. Now that frugal approach is being applied to medicine and science, with the advent of devices made from bare-bones materials that are easy for anyone to assemble and repair on their own.
The idea of frugal science has taken off in recent years, says Jose Gomez-Marquez of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, particularly in the fields of biomedical research and diagnostics. Groups like MIT’s are hacking common tools such as bicycle pumps to make for medication, for instance. In a field trial in Nicaragua, they have begun testing an for sterilising medical equipment. Built from a pressure cooker, it uses the insides of snack wrappers as reflectors to concentrate solar rays for power.
The beauty of these devices is that they are easy for anyone to improve upon and simple to fix if something goes wrong, Gomez-Marquez says.
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“The beauty of these devices is that they’re easy for anyone to adapt and fix if something goes wrong”
Another ingenious technology is a paper microscope designed by of Stanford University, California, that costs about 50 cents to produce. The pattern is printed in several die-cut pieces on a single sheet of stiff, water-resistant paper. The colour-coded pieces make the microscope easy to put together in a few minutes without needing to read instructions.
When the microscope is folded up like origami, it stacks two polymer lenses over one another so that they magnify the image on a slide up to 3000 times. The user holds the microscope up to their eye and looks through a pinhole. Squeezing the tabs on either side bends the paper until the image is focused. The resolution is good enough for a user to see a malaria parasite in a blood sample or Trypanosoma cruzi, the organism that causes Chagas disease.
In addition to being useful, the microscopes are also fun toys, which may boost their popularity in the developing world. “We want to give one to every kid,” Prakash said in a recent presentation at the conference in San Francisco.
Another way of popularising a frugal technology is to tap into an existing market, says of the Frugal Innovation Lab at Santa Clara University in California, and nothing is more ubiquitous than cellphones: 75 per cent of the world’s population now has one. Her lab is exploiting this by developing sensors that detect the level of arsenic in a water sample, and then plug into any cellphone to transmit that data to researchers who can analyse whether the water is safe to drink.
Gomez-Marquez’s group is also using phones to help people remember to take their medication. While diseases such as tuberculosis are readily curable with antibiotics, the treatment only works if people take the drug for six to eight months, and up to 50 per cent of people . So the researchers developed a way to track them from afar with a that contains a numerical code written in an invisible ink. This ink reacts with one of the chemicals that results from the antibiotic breaking down in the body. When you pee on the paper strip, the code won’t appear unless you have been taking your drugs. Text the code to be rewarded with free minutes for your cellphone.
“A code in invisible ink reacts with a chemical in urine to encourage people with TB to take antibiotics”
The researchers are now testing these strips in several countries. Gomez-Marquez says they plan to launch similar sets of strips that can diagnose Ebola and dengue fever. Public health workers can also track a disease outbreak via text messages.
Still, getting these frugal technologies out of the lab and into the hands of the people who need them is a challenge, says Basu. In addition to being inexpensive, these devices have to be easy to use, able to stand up to harsh physical conditions, and relevant to the needs of the people they go to.
With that in mind Tekla Labs, a student-run group from the University of California at Berkeley surveyed research labs in Latin America and asked them what equipment they needed but couldn’t afford. The group then went to work building alternatives out of easily acquired materials, and making step-by-step directions available. A hot plate that stirs liquid using a rotating magnet would cost hundreds of dollars from a standard manufacturer; Tekla Labs’ with a homemade circuit board costs about $30.
Julea Vlassakis of Tekla Labs thinks that a frugal approach could also work in labs in the US and other rich nations. “Everyone is looking at a shrinking budget,” she says.
The malaria doctor in a box
Detecting malaria in blood samples is relatively simple – but the equipment that does it is often far too expensive to be practical for communities in developing countries. A device called , developed by a group of Dutch “biohackers” puts cutting-edge diagnostics in a shoebox-sized package that costs just $250.
Microscopy is the gold standard for malaria diagnosis, but requires trained staff and a clinic. With a finger prick, Amplino can identify almost anyone with malaria within 20 minutes, even people who are infected and don’t have symptoms. Each test only costs about $1 and it can also tell what strain is responsible, which standard field tests cannot. An internet connection allows public health groups and governments to track outbreaks and act quickly to combat them.
Amplino is a mini qPCR machine, which makes lots of copies of a specific piece of DNA. A blood sample is inserted into a cartridge with enzymes and short pieces of DNA that pair with part of malaria’s genome. During cycles of hot and cold, these DNA “probes” fluoresce if they meet their match. For a little extra money, several probes can be added to the cartridges, each glowing a different colour when they bind to a specific strain. The same technique can be used for bacteria and viruses, including HIV.
Amplino has won a number of awards and the company is preparing for a field test in Zambia at the end of the year. Cat Ferguson
This article appeared in print under the headline “DIY diagnostics for world’s poorest”
