Diagnostics For All Set To Take The Field For Clinical Trials

With more than $10 million in funding from the Gates Foundation and other grant sources and a network of volunteer professionals to bolster its six-person staff, not-for-profit start-up Diagnostics for All (DFA) is set to begin a field trial in Kenya in March to evaluate its energy- and water-independent, postage stamp-sized diagnostic device to assess liver function in AIDS and tuberculosis patients. But the company, launched out of the Harvard University laboratory of George Whitesides, PhD, eschews the notion that it's a charitable endeavor. Rather, CEO Una Ryan, PhD, and Harvard have crafted a licensing deal and business model that anticipates leveraging its not-for-profit work in the developing world into a sustainable commercial First World business.

DFA is built around a Whitesides' technology for running clinical chemistries and immunoassays using a single-use disposable. The device is formed by printing layered patterns of microfluidics channels on water-repellent...