Companies Partner to Develop Point-of-Care Device for Flu Diganosis

GE Global Research, the research of development arm of General Electric Co. (GE), has been awarded a program through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop a medical device that can diagnose the flu and other infectious diseases such as malaria, E. coli and salmonella at the point of care. In addition to making an accurate diagnosis, another goal of the device is to be readily adapted for new strains of diseases so that new diagnostic tests can be rapidly developed.

GE scientists will partner with InDevR, a biotechnology company in Boulder, Colo., that develops tools to assist in disease diagnosis such as the flu and vaccine development as well. GE, with deep research experience in chemistry and world-class experts in DNA and RNA analysis, will incorporate new materials and molecular biology methods into a device developed by InDevR. The nearly $5.8 million in funding from DARPA for the project will result in the creation of at least seven new jobs at InDevR.

“We are thrilled to be working with GE Global Research,” said Kathy L Rowlen, Ph.D., InDevR’s CEO and chief science officer. “The partnership offers a powerful combination of InDevR’s strengths in virus identification and instrument development with GE’s global leadership in healthcare products, technologies and services. The DARPA contract will not only support innovative research to improve flu diagnosis, it will administer a healthy shot in the arm for Boulder’s economy in the form of new, high-paying technology jobs at InDevR.”

Erin Finehout, a lead engineer at GE Global Research and principal investigator on the DARPA project, explained that the flu can be diagnosed in the doctor’s office, but often, patient samples need to be sent out to a lab to confirm a diagnosis and provide more information about a patient’s condition.


“GE and InDevR intend to develop a device that brings this analysis to the point of care at the doctor’s office, a remote military base, or the site of a humanitarian mission responding to a major healthcare pandemic,” Finehout said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as much as 20 percent of the U.S. population will get the flu during flu season. Of that population, about 200,000 end up hospitalized for treatment. The hope is that faster, more accurate diagnosis of the flu and other respiratory viruses upfront will lead to improved patient treatment and a reduced number of severe cases.

GE and InDevR scientists are working to develop a device that is highly portable, easy to use and requires little training. This would allow a broader range of medical providers to operate the device and enable it to be used in clinical settings that would reach more people in need of care, experts from both groups noted. DARPA is interested in having a device that could be used in the field to help assess soldiers deployed in remote areas where access to care is limited. This device also is being targeted for use by medics sent out by the U.S. military on humanitarian missions and for disaster relief efforts.

The new device should be adaptable for recognizing new strains of the flu and other infectious diseases. Finehout explained this could be achieved if it can simultaneously analyze multiple types of biomolecules (DNA, RNA and protein) in a patient sample. Most diagnostic platforms are designed to work only with one of these types of molecules. This versatility will allow for system that not only can be readily modified to recognize new strains, but also diagnose a wide variety of different diseases. This kind of adaptability and versatility is not possible in current devices on the market today.