Disease Sensor Wins Programmatic Impact Award

Harshini Mukundan, Basil Swanson, Aaron Anderson, and Kevin Grace of C-PCS won the Programmatic Impact Award from the Laboratory for their efforts in the optical waveguide platform to accurately identify disease. This was the 13th annual Technology Transfer Award ceremony. The awards celebrate Los Alamos National Laboratory innovators and recognize their vital role in transferring important science and technology from the Laboratory to the private sector.

About the invention
One of the missions of Los Alamos National Laboratory is to ensure national security by detecting and eliminating biological threats. LANL has teams working with domestic and international partners toward understanding the biomarkers associated with tuberculosis, which affects one-third of the world's population. Previously, tuberculosis had been hard to diagnose early, and the methods used to diagnose it were known to be invasive. Understanding these biomarkers not only makes the disease easier to identify, but also increases the accuracy of the prognosis. The system also improves several of the major attributes required to be a robust field-deployable device including portability, short time for results, and high specificity.

Programmatic Impact Award
The Programmatic Impact Award honors individuals or groups who have made advancements to the programmatic mission of Los Alamos National Laboratory through their interactions with industry partners. Nominees have interacted with industry partners through a technology transfer mechanism (Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, Work for Others, Licensing, User Facility Agreement, or Memorandum of Understanding) to add value to the technology field in which they work for programmatic and commercial uses.

The recipients of this award demonstrate stellar technical prowess as well as the innovation and creativity needed to demonstrate excellence in both programmatic and commercial applications.

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