Rapid Diagnostic Testing (RDT)

Rapid diagnostic test (RDT) kits offer useful alternatives to laboratory testing in environments where reliable laboratories don’t exist or are not cost effective.  They can be used in the fight against infectious diseases in developing countries or for early diagnosis of disease in fish and many markets in between.

Problem

All regions struggle with infectious diseases in humans and animals.  The challenge in developing countries and low resource markets is compounded. Current RDT's are often too expensive and reliability can suffer from exposure to extreme temperatures. which decreases their reliability. Also, results interpretation can require expensive equipment or rely on low visual contrast, which increases the chance of misdiagnoses. 

Opportunity

Gaskiya has a platform technology that will enable the development of a variety of robust, low-cost, rapid diagnostic kits for infectious disease detection. This technology will improve both the cost and effectiveness of RDT's to accelerate use in developing countries and enable their use in new industries. Initially, the tests will focus on Malaria and the Zika Virus for human testing and vibrio in oysters, but the platform will enable future diagnostics of many other infectious diseases affecting humans, animals and food sources.