Seventh Sense Biosystems Inc. has been awarded a $3.28 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant is part of the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative to seek out innovative ideas for diagnostics in the developing world. Seventh Sense’s proprietary Touch Activated Phlebotomy (TAP) technology platform is one of more than twenty Grand Challenges point-of-care diagnostics grants announced today. This Grand Challenges program aims to create technologies and components that can enhance assessment of conditions and pathogens at the point-of-care in a variety of settings.

“We are delighted to be part of this significant initiative to improve healthcare in developing countries. The support of the Gates Foundation underscores the potential of the Seventh Sense approach and enables us to expand our TAP technology to aid in the delivery of better diagnoses in resource-poor areas of the world,” said Doug Levinson, Ph.D., President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Seventh Sense Biosystems, and Partner at Flagship Ventures. “Diagnostic testing is essential for most medical decision-making and, in most cases, requires access to high quality blood samples. Our TAP technology facilitates better care by painlessly, safely and conveniently eliminating conventional barriers to blood collection, which could help facilitate access to diagnostic testing to virtually anyone, anywhere in the world.”

“New and improved diagnostics to use at the point-of-care can help health workers around the world save countless lives,” said Chris Wilson, Director of Global Health Discovery at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “Our hope is that these bold ideas lead to affordable, easy-to-use tools that can rapidly diagnose diseases and trigger timelier treatment in resource-poor communities.”

Seventh Sense will use the grant funds to develop enhanced TAP prototypes that can collect higher volume blood samples required for a broad range of field-based diagnostic testing. Funds will be received over a three-year period, during which Seventh Sense intends to optimize design, develop manufacturing methods and integrate all components into a simple device that can be used with a broad spectrum of point-of-care diagnostic devices in the developing world. The new product is envisioned as a cost-effective, universal blood sampling platform, requiring no external power source or technical expertise to operate.

It is encouraging to know that an organization as prominent as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is interested in providing significant financial support to developing innovative medical devices and IVDs. This should be an indication to medical device and IVD companies that there are groups out there willing to give money to promising technologies.

-Richard Park