16 Year Old Girl Olivia Hallisey Win Grand Prize At Google Science Fair 2015 For Rapid Field Detection of EBOLA
The winners of the 2015 Google Science Fair have been announced! This is a prestigious international science fair, featuring the work of students ages 13 to 18. Though “science fair” the Google Science Fair attracts teens who are working on some truly amazing projects.
The Grand Prize went to 16 Year Old Girl Olivia Hallisey from Greenwich High School in Connecticut,US. Her project title is “TEMPERATURE-INDEPENDENT, PORTABLE, AND RAPID FIELD DETECTION OF EBOLA VIA A SILK-DERIVED LATERAL-FLOW SYSTEM” the Grand Prize, consisting of a $50,000 scholarship.
She develop Simple and inexpensive Ebola detection platform that can be stored and transported without refrigeration. To begin, current Ebola ELISA reagents were embedded in silk fibroin, which possesses stabilizing properties, allowing storage of otherwise refrigerated reagents at room temperature. To confirm ELISA colorimetric detection of Ebola after prolonged, non-refrigerated storage of the kit’s reagents, the Ebola ELISA was conducted in a 96-wellplate format (A450nm) at 0-7days from initial mixing and dilutions. Results indicate Ebola ELISA detection is viable in water dilutions only on the day of mixing. For silk-embedded reagents, successful detection was realized for up to one week of RT storage. Silk-film embedded Ebola ELISA reagents were used to construct a four-channel, paper-based, fluidic detection card, with colorimetric reagents positioned to create timed, visible detection of Ebola antigens. In this new device, that is stable and stored at room temperature, 30µl drops of water were used to dissolve silk-embedded reagents, initiating a timed-flow towards a center detection zone, where a positive (colored) result confirmed the presence of 500pg/ml Ebola(+)control antigens in 30min, at a cost of $25.
Google Science Fair 2015: Olivia Hallisey, Connecticut, USA