Exploiting advances in diagnostic and wireless technologies to reduce the burden of STIs

This application is a plan to build an expert group (Consortium) of scientists and doctors to develop: 1) inexpensive, easy to use personal diagnostic kits, that can test for and give immediate results (that is in minutes) for many sexually transmitted infections (STI) all at once; 2) the ability to immediately and automatically communicate these results electronically with mobile-phones and the internet to give immediate interactive advice, help those infected to get early treatment, locate the nearest treatment centres and make it easier to inform partner?s that they ought to get tested and treated. These devices will be easy to obtain, for example as are condoms from vending machines in clubs. All these procedures will be managed to the highest current ethics guidelines. The Consortium will also aim to see if these devices can automatically and anonymously feed into the Government?s surveillance system for STIs so as to get a truer picture of the amount of STI in the community. The overall aim is to provide a community based diagnostic environment that lets young people, and others at risk for STIs, have easy access to diagnosis and advice, allowing them to take greater control of their sexual health while also reducing the amount of STI in the community. The Consortium will include experts in the special fields of microarrays (?gene chips?), microfluidics (?lab-on-a-chip?) and internet/mobile communication technologies to help the development of the devices and also doctors and public health experts to help identify the best ways the devices could be distributed and used to get maximum benefit to the community. The Consortium will be built by adding to the partnerships that already exist among the group applying for the grant by inviting other key experts in the fields to a series of specially invited seminars and workshops to identify the main challenges to the research ahead. These meetings will be where it is decided who should join the Consortium. The resulting group will then devise a programme of research over five years, based on the workshops and the expertise within it. The Consortium will be established by early 2009, in time to submit a full grant application for the work that the Consortium will propose to do.

This Strategy development grant application aims to build a multidisciplinary Consortium that will exploit the recent advances in micro-engineering and wireless communication to develop a novel community-based, rapid STI diagnostic system. This will deliver easily obtainable, inexpensive, user-friendly, highly accurate, point-of-care, nucleic acid amplification (NAAT)-based, diagnostic test devices, for multiple STIs, that are integrated with wireless/mobile-phone technologies to give immediate test results together with their interpretation, and sexual health advice while facilitating early STI treatment and partner notification. It will also aim to provide a platform for enhanced community STI surveillance, to work alongside existing STI surveillance, thereby giving a truer indication of STI burden and strengthening the basis for local sexual health promotion. The long term aim is to provide a community based diagnostic environment that facilitates easy access to STI care enabling those at risk to take greater control of their sexual health, reducing the burden of STIs. The Consortium will include expertise with simultaneous microarray detection of multiple pathogens, skills in engineering and wireless/mobile communication technologies to drive the development of these systems and also include clinical, epidemiological and surveillance expertise to identify the best strategies for their maximum public health impact. Ethical implications of the proposals will be explored during its development. The Consortium will be built on existing well developed inter-institutional scientific collaborations by identifying and inviting key experts in the relevant fields to a series of invitee-only seminars and workshops to identify the main epidemiological and technological challenges ahead. The Consortium that emerges from these workshops will use the evidence accrued from them to synthesise a programme of research to be conducted by the Consortium over a five year period. A preliminary programme proposal will form the basis for negotiations around the establishment of the Consortium and its management structure. St George?s, University of London, has a well established research office that has a proven track record in negotiating the establishment of Consortia. The process of Consortium formation will further enhance and add to the nature of the research programme over the subsequent months, in line for an outline proposal to the UKCRC in early 2009. The Consortium will be established by early 2009, in time to submit a full Consortium grant proposal.