Professor Chris D. Geddes and the Institute of Fluorescence have recently been announced winners of the 2013 innovator of the year award by the Daily Record. Dr Geddes and the IoF have won the award for their development of a very rapid and low cost test for the determination of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs). Typically clinical diagnostics for STIs can take as long as 48 hrs, over which time the epidemiological transmission and infection spread can occur further. The IoFs technology can detect the presence of an STI within 8 minutes, allowing a real-time point-of-care test to be realized, meaning that patients presenting with STI-like symptoms in an emergency department / clinic can be diagnosed and potentially treated on-site. The new test costs less than $2 per swab, making the test attractive for downstream commercialization and clinical use.

In addition to Dr Geddes, IoF / Chemistry Graduate Student Johan Melendez has worked on the project as part of his thesis, the clinical validation of the technology recently being reported in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.

Further details of the award and other technology developments can be found on the IoF (UMBC’s Institute of Fluorescence) website.

We congratulate Professor Geddes and the IoF team on this notable award.