The National Science Foundation Awards $500,000 SBIR
grant to Vegrandis

Fayetteville, AR – Vegrandis, LLC will continue development of technology that will allow for improved detection of pathogens in blood.  Vegrandis’ micro-electrochemical detection-based assays rapidly measure minute quantities of pathogens in blood and other body fluids. The $500,000 award from the National Science Foundation will fund the application of this technology to malaria, a disease that kills over 1 million people per year worldwide.  The ability to rapidly detect the type and degree of malarial infection in an individual will allow a physician to provide focused treatment to minimize the long-term effects of this disease.  On a larger-scale, the medical community will be able to compile information on potential epidemics, identify trends in the development of resistance and monitor the spread of the disease.  In addition, researchers that are creating new vaccines and treatments for malaria will benefit substantially from the ability to detect very low levels of malarial infection.

One of the most immediate benefits of this test for malaria is to increase the availability of the blood supply in the U.S.  The citizens of the U.S. have access to one of the cleanest emergency blood supplies in the world.  In an effort to maintain the safety of this supply, blood donors are deferred from donating blood for up to 1 year after travel to a malaria-endemic region.  These long deferral windows reduce the blood supply by as much as 10% which can be of critical importance during blood shortages.  Blood banks currently test each unit of donated blood for a multitude of infectious diseases and Vegrandis’ test for malaria will be incorporated into this protocol. 

Dr. Zoraida Aguilar, Senior Scientist of Vegrandis, LLC said, “No longer will the blood banking industry have to rely on the accuracy of donor questionnaires to screen for potential carriers of malaria.  Our assay will help ensure that every unit of blood is free of this dangerous pathogen.”   In the future, this technology can be applied to the detection of other pathogens of interest to the medical community and the blood banking industry.  

Vegrandis is enthusiastic about the opportunity to develop a highly marketable product that will reduce the burden of human disease.  This is the company’s ninth SBIR award since January, 2003.

For more information on Virtual Incubation or Vegrandis, LLC, check the website at www.virtual-incubation.com.