Original from: PR Newswire
Alveo Technologies, Inc. (Alveo), a leader in portable molecular sensing solutions, today announced a strategic partnership with The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) to develop point-of-care diagnostics for viral hemorrhagic fevers across West Africa. The point-of-care diagnostic will provide real-time pathogen detection at clinical sites in Nigeria and Sierra Leone, supporting UTMB's Lassa fever research program—a major international initiative.
Lassa fever affects 100,000-300,000 people annually in West Africa, with case fatality rates exceeding 20% among hospitalized patients. The ability to rapidly diagnose Lassa fever at the point-of-care could be transformative for outbreak containment and patient management in regions where sending samples to distant laboratories can take weeks and pose logistical challenges.
"UTMB is helping us to further push the capabilities of molecular testing to support critical research and outbreak response in the world's most remote locations," said Shaun Holt, CEO of Alveo Technologies. "Beyond the development of a diagnostic for Lassa Fever, UTMB faculty are engaged in validating and deploying our technology in exactly the types of real-world applications our technology was designed for."
The UTMB collaboration is part of Alveo's broader Partner Program, designed to accelerate innovation in molecular diagnostics through strategic partnerships with leading research institutions and industry partners, using an open-platform approach. The Academic Partnership Path, launched in late 2024, enables researchers to develop assays on the Alveo platform and deploy the technology in settings with significant unmet public health needs.
"There is a clear and immediate need for a reliable point-of-care diagnostic for Lassa fever," said Dr. Courtney Woolsey, Professor in UTMB's Department of Microbiology & Immunology and Principal Investigator of the Lassa fever research program. "Having immediate diagnostic capabilities at our field sites will fundamentally change how we respond to Lassa fever cases in affected communities."
Comprehensive Partnership Validates Platform Capabilities
Beyond the development of a Lassa fever diagnostic, the UTMB partnership includes two additional validation initiatives that demonstrate the breadth of Alveo's platform capabilities in environmentally or geographically challenging settings, highlighting the platform's versatility for global health applications.
Peru Field Testing: Deployment of Alveo Sense Poultry platform for avian influenza surveillance in Peru - testing performance in challenging environmental conditions.
"Earlier this year, we tested Alveo Sense in field conditions in Peru. The main goal was to evaluate the device's resilience in warm, humid, and dusty environments," said Maureen Laroche, PhD, FRES, Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology. "In collaboration with SENASA (the Peruvian Agricultural Health Services), we were able to easily test healthy chickens as part of an education campaign for poultry owners. All materials fit in a small bag, which was very convenient for us, and the results were delivered in real time, on site, through the Alveo app."
High-Containment Validation: Validation at UTMB's Galveston National Laboratory under maximum biosafety conditions to ensure Alveo's platform delivers consistent results regardless of operator experience, environmental conditions, or individual analyzer units. This validation is essential prior to deploying tests in diverse field settings where variables are uncontrolled.
Applicable studies were supported by the National Institutes of Health grant UC7AI094660 for BSL-4 operations support of the Galveston National Laboratory.
Source: Alveo Technologies Partners with University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) to Develop Point-of-Care Diagnostics for Lassa Fever in West Africa
