16 million suffer from severe B12 deficiency in Nigeria, an invisible problem. Nonprofits struggle to find places most in need of intervention programs + how they should maximize their efficiencies. Thus, 80% of them are not receiving treatment.
Population data should be collected every 5 years so NGOs can find where to establish intervention programs. However, in Nigeria this data is only being collected every 20 years due to high costs ($10M) and the lengthy process (+5 years) to collect data.
A low-cost biosensor that can assess vitamin B12 for under $5 per assay at the point of care. In cutting the need to ship samples overseas to first-world labs, and the million dollar cold-supply chains, and use of expensive lab equipment, this will decrease costs by 40x and time by several years
“Ideally, we want the cost of data to be under $5 per assay. At the moment for B12 it’s over $20 and can go up to $60 USD per test in some countries. ” - Dr. Maria Jefferds, CDC
“To me this biosensor would be a dream!” Lisa Rogers, WHO
Hand-held sensor costing under $5 per assay
Generating results on the site anytime anywhere
Providing quantitative readouts of B12 status with minimal worker training required
Integrating gold-standard glucose sensing and widely available off-the-shelf glucometer technology.