Emory University is treating two US patients suffering from ebola, with help from a Boston spin-out.
NexGen Arrays, a Boston University spin-out, is working along researchers at Emory and Boston universities to treat ebola patients.
According to the World Health Organisation, more than 1,700 people have been infected with ebola during the current outbreak in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Two American citizens have been transported to the US to be treated at Emory University in a cross-faculty effort.
NexGen is working on a molecular diagnostic platform. Its lead product, called Sp-Iris sensor, can detect, at clinically relevant levels, multiplexed single particles in unprocessed blood. The technology allows the simple and efficient detection of viruses.
NexGen was created by PhD candidates at Boston University, Sunmin Ahn, George Daaboul, Alex Reddington, Margo Monroe, Philipp Spuhler, David Freedman and Carlos Lopez.
John Connor, associate professor of microbiology and a researcher at Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories, said: “If we can find ways to diagnose infection early, that will directly help effective therapy. And with early diagnosis, if you identify one patient that is symptomatic, suggesting that their course of disease is far along, early tests like the one we are developing will allow rapid testing of contacts of that first patient and early treatment of those infected with the disease.”
