Patients with G6PD (glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase) deficiency are at risk of severe anaemia when treated for malaria. Conventional tests to check for G6PD deficiency are neither cost-effective nor practical for testing at scale in the field, so a point-of-care diagnostic test was a pressing requirement.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is one of the most important global drivers of research and innovation to combat infectious disease, providing effective vaccines, drugs, and diagnostics and to develop innovative approaches to deliver health services to those who need it most.
Before the 1980s, it took a visit to the GP for most women to confirm their pregnancy. Only laboratory assays could check for an increase in the hCG hormone indicating pregnancy, leaving women beholden to family doctors to find out if they were to have a baby.
As the world’s population grows, the aquaculture industry is playing a vital role in ensuring a consistent supply of fish and seafood, a healthy source of protein, via an efficient production method.
Black-grass is an annual weed which poses a major threat to crops, its prevalence increasing largely as a result of resistance to commonly-used herbicides. Black-grass is thought to be the most economically important weed in Western Europe with upwards of 13% yield losses recorded.
Wounds that are difficult to diagnose place a heavy burden on global healthcare systems. In the UK, it is estimated that around 30% of wounds are not definitively diagnosed, and the burden they place on the NHS is comparable to that of managing obesity.
