Team led by Indian-American develops phone-based saliva test: Here’s all you need to know

A research team led by Indian-American Saurabh Mehta won $100,000 (₹73 lakh) for developing a mobile phone-based system to detect infectious diseases, inflammation and nutritional deficiencies in saliva

The Cornell researchers’ team led by Saurabh Mehta was awarded the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Technology Accelerator Challenge prize that encourages the development of new, non-invasive diagnostic technologies important for global health.

As reported by WION, Dr. Mehta is an associate professor of global health, epidemiology and nutrition in the Division of Nutritional Sciences, in the College of Human Ecology, and the Department of Global Development in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

How to use

For the test, one must clip a 3D-printed adapter to the mobile phone and sync with an app. The app uses phone’s camera to image test strips and gives results within 15 minutes.