Connected Mobile Lab with Next Generation Sequencing

Strengthening local health systems thanks to a truly mobile, connected and safe lab for routine diagnostics and outbreak control

The Praesens Foundation, co-founded by Pr. Peter Piot and serial entrepreneur Rudi Pauwels, has developed a unique connected 6x6 mobile Lab with innovative diagnostic capacities.

The lab is truly mobile, is fully connected by satellite, embarks an isolator to handle the most infectious pathogens (Level IV certified lab) and airco to put lab technicians in the safest and most confortable environment.

The lab embarks breakthrough Next Generation Sequencing capabilities to participate to the gene diversification of biobanks, development of localised clinical trials, disease surveillance, AntiMicrobial Resistance studies, etc.

The Lab can be dispatched very quickly on an outbreak field or can be used in "peace time" for routine diagnostics (HIV Viral Load, TB testing, women health) and care.

The Lab has been successfully deployed by our field partner, Institut Pasteur in Dakar and helped controlled a dengue outbreak.

So far, mobile lab solutions consists of tents or trucks that are not suitable for a theatre of operations. Moreover, these solutions are most of the time neither safe nor confortable for the healthcare workers.

Bringing a Level IV lab to the population has never been so easy and quick and in case of outbreak, speed, safety and accuracy are mostly important.

Our solution brings connectivity and unique diagnostics capacity in remote areas. 

In diagnostics the workflow is important. At all stages of our workflow, there is technology and innovation.

The blood sample is entered into the truck through a secured hatch. Then  the technician can operate in a fully secured isolator. Samples and activity are tracked by multiple sensors. Once sample is sequenced on an NGS platform, results are sent by satellite to a cloud-based interpretation solution in blockchain, hosted in Africa. Results are shown on a grid surveillance software for visualisation.

AI software provides a diagnosis to the Healthcare Provider offers a potential treatment suggestion.

Scaling-up.

We currently have one truck deployed at Institut Pasteur in Dakar. We just signed a Letter of Intention with the African CDC to assess the opportunity to deploy in Africa a fleet of mobile labs.

We will continue to investigate the ability to board other useful technologies (for haematology, echographs, etc) and connect them together to ease patient diagnostics.

With economies of scale, price of the mobile lab will decrease and become more affordable and thus, having in Africa and other regions in the world a grid of mobile labs supporting and strengthening national health systems.

With the mobile lab doing routine diagnostics in peace time (HIV viral Load, TB, co-infections, etc), we believe the labs fleet will participate to the 90-90-90 goal and more generally to the SDG.

We are working on a version 2 of the truck that will have more space on board, and where the lab could be detached from the vehicle.

We carefully choose a partnering institution for each deployment. Our first truck is with Institut Pasteur in Dakar where we spent 6 months to train and empower local technicians, nurses, etc. 

Our next deployment will be hopefully through the African CDC and its regional collaboration centres.

We ran around 1000 diagnostics around a pilot/training period of 120 days with one single lab. We believe a single mobile lab has capacities to diagnose, depending on the assay with turnaround time varying between 15 min to 1.5h, between 80 to 700 patients a day.

Which turns into an average of 140.000 patients a year for a single lab!

If CDC Africa believes into a regional scale up, we could reach a million patients within 12 months.

In about 3 years, if our first scale up has been successful, routine diagnostics could be expanded through our fleet and complement/replace primary and secondary care setups, reaching millions of patients. In Africa and other regions of the world.

Unique expertise in technology, diagnostics and virology (see biography of Dr Rudi Pauwels and Pr Peter Piot)

Unique set of connections with key partnering organisations (WHO, etc)

For long term sustainability, we are looking at a hybrid business model.

Airline companies might contribute for disease surveillance at airports and charge it to customers.

Routine diagnostics in the mobile lab paid by partially by patients, The Global Fund, local MoH programs, NGOs.

Capacity building (capex like mobile labs, etc) might be paid by The World Bank, foundations (Bill&Melinda Gates Foundation, Ending Pandemics, etc).

To gain traction and visibility. We believe in our solution and it has proven its efficacy on the field. 

We need more advocacy to gain attention from the media, from future partners interested in our open-platform approach and from potential donors.

Raising the first millions for scaling-up.