A 17-year-old student from Connecticut has developed a "pregnancy test for Ebola," a nifty invention which allows an individual to check if s/he is carrying the virus through a simple, inexpensive method.
2015 Google Science Fair winner Olivia Hallisey stopped by "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" to talk about her invention.
"I call it a pregnancy test for Ebola because it's a visual process. It's all based on color change. All you need is a sample from the possibly infected person," she explained to Stephen Colbert.
Hallisey shared that her teachers told her to come up with something that inspires her, something that's relevant. She thought of the project last fall after watching how Ebola has deeply affected the lives of people. She shared that she was really worried with how quickly the virus was spreading.
According to Greenwich Time, the high school student's invention "uses a four-channel card four-channel card, in which substances known as reagents would react with a patient's Ebola antigens."
A patient only needs to place a sample in the middle, like a saliva, and a drop of water in the three remaining channels. After approximately 30 minutes, the center will turn into blue if a person is positive of Ebola virus, very similar to any home pregnancy kit.
"Current tests are expensive and complicated and, most importantly, require refrigeration," Hallisey said.
By using a silk fibroin solution, which are proteins from silk cocoons, Hallisey was able to invent a test that does not need any refrigeration. It also only costs $25, a far cry from the thousands of dollars clinics usually charge per patient. This will be a very viable and much more economic option, especially for those in developing nations such as West Africa, where Ebola is rampant.
The "pregnancy for Ebola test" won Hallisey a $50,000 scholarship grant from Google.
