HIV/AIDS
Over 30 million people are infected with human immunodeficiency virus worldwide. In the United States, most recent CDC figures indicate more than 56,000 new cases of HIV infection annually. Significant progress has been made in recent years developing and delivering anti-retroviral therapies to those in need. HIV, however, remains an epidemic; effective management demands improved, low-cost diagnostics technologies.

HIV and Co-Infection Diagnosis
It would be greatly beneficial to generate a detailed view of an individual’s opportunistic co-infection status at the time of initial HIV screening. Current co-infection testing is complex and in many areas cost-prohibitive. Armed with co-infection information, however, practitioners could make improved strategic therapy and patient management decisions. A first product under development at mBio is a rapid, multiplexed serology and antigen detection system with HIV and a panel of common co-infections, such as hepatitis B & C, T. gondii, and T. pallidum.

This image is from mBio’s multiple disease marker test which simultaneously determines HIV and viral co-infection exposure.

CD4+ Cell Enumeration at the Point-of-Care

CD4+ T cell count is the key measurement in the management of HIV-infected individuals. Current technology still focuses on relatively expensive flow cytometry based measurements in centralized laboratories. Low-cost, clinic-based CD4+ cell counting tools remain a major unmet need, particularly in low resource settings. mBio/Precision Photonics has received a $2 million grant through the NIST Advanced Technology Program to develop technologies for very low cost cell enumeration. The mBio technology combines a simple integrated fluidic cartridge with a fluorescence imaging system and automated cell counting. Point-of-care CD4+ cell counting would fundamentally change the management of HIV-infected individuals worldwide.