New Method for Malaria Diagnosis

Every year, a quarter of a billion people become infected with malaria. A million children die every year from the disease in Africa alone. The method being developed by the nuclear physicists in Lund is based on imaging with the help of multispectral light microscopy. The method is both inexpensive and modern, state the researchers.

“Spectral imaging belongs to basic research and at the same time is highly relevant to many problems in developing countries. This is a good combination”, says Sune Svanberg, adding that only a very small proportion of the research that is carried out today is directly relevant to developing countries.

Mikkel Brydegaard, one of Sune Svanberg’s doctoral students, thinks that this type of project can attract students to study physics. “This shows that even physicists can do something to help the Third World”, says Mikkel, a member of the PIEp Research School, whose project is also part of the PIEp IDRE program (Innovation Driven Research Education).

http://www.piep.se/data/album/IDRE_Mikkel.jpgIDRE research student, Mikkel Brydegaard, LTH

Read Linda Viberg’s full article in the Lund University Magazine at: http://www.lu.se/o.o.i.s/22774

15.02.2010. 16:17