Electronic Nose received $950000 Grant to Develop Technology to Fight Tuberculosis

The Electronic Nose, which has the potential to diagnose tuberculosis (TB) in symptomatic patients, was awarded a $950,000 grant from Grand Challenges Canada and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on 7 November 2011. The grant was given to enable Electronic Nose to support further development and testing of this ground-breaking technology.

The funding will help determine whether the Electronic Nose is able to detect TB immediately and non-invasively from the patient's breath, in order to replace time-consuming testing with sputum. It is estimated that up to 400000 lives a year can be saved in the developing world by early diagnosis, immediate treatment and reduced transmission of this killer disease.

TB claims close to 1.7 million lives yearly and is second only to HIV/AIDs as the world's most deadly infectious disease.

The two-year grant given to Electronic Nose will be used to validate the finding in four centres throughout India. Dr. Ranjan Nanda of the New Delhi-based International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, one of the lead researchers on the electronic nose project, aims to have a validated prototype by December 2013.

About Electronic Nose

The development of the Electronic Nose marks the collaboration between the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in New Delhi, India, and Next Dimension Technologiesin California. The New Delhi innovators are currently working with sensors developed in California to track biomarkers in the breath.

Grand Challenges Canada is funded by the Government of Canada through the Development Innovation Fund announced in the 2008 Budget. Grand Challenges Canada works in a consortium with Canada's International Development Research Centre and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.