Brian Cunningham, recently named a Royal Society of Chemistry Fellow, is applying his knowledge in cancer diagnostics (detecting nucleic molecules in blood to diagnose the stage or type of cancer) to develop point-of-care detection systems using the capabilities of smartphones.

With NIH and NIAID funding, Cunningham’s group has been producing a plastic cartridge that clips on to smartphones to diagnose the Zika virus from a small drop of blood. These efforts have now been redirected towards efforts to diagnose COVID-19.

Listen to Cunningham’s interview with Illinois Newsroom.