Cornell NutriPhone
The Cornell NutriPhone has resulted through a collaboration between scientists and engineers in Nutritional Sciences and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University. When we began this partnership, our initial targets were to develop diagnostic tools that were affordable and accessible for populations in both resource-limited and resource-rich settings. From a technical standpoint, we also decided to focus on adapting conventional laboratory assays and gold standard methods rather than focusing on proxy biomarkers that are widely used in most field-based rapid diagnostic tests. We now have several issued patents for our technology and prototypes for low-cost accurate quantitative determination of several micronutrients including vitamins D and B12 concentrations from a drop of blood at the point-of-care.
In recent work, we have started examining other matrices such as saliva as well as food to measure micronutrient status. We received a $100K prize in 2020 from the National Institutes of Health for our concept of non-invasive rapid diagnostics for assessment of iron status and inflammation from a drop of saliva.
Relevant Publications:
Srinivasan B, Finkelstein JL, O'Dell D, Erickson D, Mehta S. Rapid diagnostics for point-of-care quantification of soluble transferrin receptor. EBioMedicine. 2019 Apr;42:504-510. doi: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2019.03.017. Epub 2019 Mar 16. PubMed PMID: 30885726; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6491390.
Gannon BM, Glesby MJ, Finkelstein JL, Raj T, Erickson D, Mehta S. A point-of-care assay for alpha-1-acid glycoprotein as a diagnostic tool for rapid, mobile-based determination of inflammation. Current Research in Biotechnology, 2019. doi:10.1016/j.crbiot.2019.09.002.
Lu Z, O'Dell D, Srinivasan B, Rey E, Wang R, Vemulapati S, Mehta S*, Erickson D*. Rapid diagnostic testing platform for iron and vitamin A deficiency. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Dec 19;114(51):13513-13518. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1711464114. PubMed PMID: 29203653; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5754775. *joint corresponding authors
Srinivasan B, Lee S, Erickson D*, Mehta S*. Precision nutrition - review of methods for point-of-care assessment of nutritional status. Curr Opin Biotechnol. 2017 Apr;44:103-108. doi: 10.1016/j.copbio.2016.12.001. Epub 2016 Dec 30. Review. PubMed PMID: 28043002. *joint corresponding authors
Lee S, O'Dell D, Hohenstein J, Colt S, Mehta S*, Erickson D*. NutriPhone: a mobile platform for low-cost point-of-care quantification of vitamin B12 concentrations. Sci Rep. 2016 Jun 15;6:28237. PubMed PMID: 27301282; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4908584. *joint corresponding authors
Lee S, Srinivasan B, Vemulapati S, Mehta S*, Erickson D*. Personalized nutrition diagnostics at the point-of-need. Lab Chip. 2016 Jun 8;PubMed PMID: 27272753. *joint corresponding authors
Erickson D, O'Dell D, Jiang L, Oncescu V, Gumus A, Lee S, Mancuso M, Mehta S. Smartphone technology can be transformative to the deployment of lab-on-chip diagnostics. Lab Chip. 2014 Sep 7;14(17):3159-64. PubMed PMID: 24700127; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4117816.
Lee S, Oncescu V, Mancuso M, Mehta S, Erickson D. A smartphone platform for the quantification of vitamin D levels. Lab Chip. 2014 Apr 21;14(8):1437-42. PubMed PMID: 24569647.
Funding Support:
