Vaishnavi’s Analytical Chemistry

Analytical Chemistry gives us the opportunity to foresee future pandemics based on the analytics that can be gathered from hospitals, waste treatment centers, reservoirs, and also drinking water. These places can give us data that can be used to predict a disease that society might be faced with in the future. This data can be found through Chemical predictive modeling, a method that can be used to guide us to the structure of future disease compounds. Predicting future pandemics can save lives! For example,  the prediction of COVID-19 could have helped avoid the economic struggles, mental health, and also could have helped us circumvent the thousands of deaths. 

There will be future pandemics. Pandemics in the past have started due to the pressure humans put on wildlife. Diseases mostly occur from animals, especially where wildlife is at its lowest due to the pollution caused by humans on a daily basis. 

These virus effects that we don’t see on animals are what start the spread of such contagious diseases among humans. Somewhere about 5 diseases, in a time period of 8 months,  are found between humans, and everyone is unsure on which can likely be a future pandemic. Another factor would be a person’s health. These pandemics are likely to emerge in a location where healthcare for people is underfunded. In places where travel is at its most, there are more chances of a disease spreading through humans. Climate is also a factor to consider when thinking about whether there are going to be future pandemics. Climate Change is also a cause that can escalate the risk of a deadly pandemic. Deforestation, a threat to wildlife who live in the forests, is one of the largest causes of why a future pandemic is likely to emerge.

Currently, our device is giving scientists around the world a chance to look at data much more precisely. This device can be located in various places, particularly where wildlife is at its lowest, providing us with what is needed to improve wildlife. These devices which are located in different areas will be able to talk to each other and send back information from the different areas, quicker and also easily. One method that is recently being used in plants, NRIS, is giving scientists better insight on the nutrients in the plants and passing the information on to the people who buy them. This method is not only meant for plants, it can also be used on animals, providing us with what is in the animal that is being affected by the surroundings of where it lives. This device can use the same system that is being used in the NRIS but rather focus on animals instead of plants. Even knowing the nutrients which the animals are being provided with the least, can give us the chance to make that resource be available for the group of animals that live in the specific range. 

Our solution will serve flora and fauna. The majority of the pandemics in the past have started due to the mistreatment of wildlife; for example, forest fires, and even cutting down the trees can be the reason why the wildlife is not getting the essentials they need. By cutting down the trees we are taking away their main source of food, and not being provided with a sufficient amount of food is the reason why animals are getting sick. When those animals do not get what is needed, a sickness or disease starts to build up within themselves and spread to humans in the long run. Having a balance between all 3 of these important factors can make sure that future pandemics or even epidemics are avoided at all costs.  

This solution would impact their lives with the use of Cell Therapy, as well as Nanoparticles. These 2 methods have been used on cancer patients in the past, but we can change the perspective of this method towards animals. The main purpose of Cell Therapy is that it will isolate and retract the cell which is causing the sickness and then insert a T cell killer. After inserting the cell and T-cell killer together we would put it back in the patient. To this day, we have used this method only on humans, but we can now also use this method in wildlife to avoid having a future pandemic. Another method we talked about was Nanoparticles. Nanoparticles do not play the same role as cell therapy, but they can play a role in impacting lives. Nanoparticles have also been used on cancer patients in the past by reducing the side effects, but then also providing the same level of treatment as chemotherapy. The Nanoparticles have shrunk a disease/tumor by at least 40-70%. This method has not killed cancer cells but rather reduced the side effects that patients have to face; hair loss, infections, being sick, tiredness, etc. Nanoparticles can even be used on wildlife by injecting them into the animal and watching the disease shrink. Right now nanoparticles have only decreased the number of side effects, and by experimenting with this method we can hope to use this and eventually kill all the cells which are damaging the wildlife. 

Many of these animals suffer from the lack of food, which is not being provided to them since most of nature is being replaced by human civilization. Human civilization has wiped out approximately 60% of the wildlife population since 1970 and tragically this number is predicted to increase more in the future. The growing consumption of food and resources by the human population has put an immense amount of animals at risk. Keeping both wildlife and human civilization separate would make sure that the animals are not endangered by the growing population that has been replacing the majority of the wildlife. 

Elephants in India, for instance, are at extreme risk since humans have been encroaching on the wildlife's habitat. Elephants in Botswana are also considered endangered seeing that almost 39 elephants have died since 2021. This number has only escalated from last year, and making sure that this number does not increase should be our first priority. 

Pollution is also a common threat to wildlife; it has affected plants, wildlife, and also sea animals. Pollution has only increased throughout the years, destroying the plants and forests with toxic chemicals. This solution can eventually protect the animals and humans from the risk of a virus breaking out and make sure that future pandemics are circumvented. 

This solution has a positive impact on both Flora and Fauna. It gives us hope that we can ultimately stop future pandemics, and this can happen by starting with the wildlife. 

Our solution has 2 stages; first, we determine the potentiality of a pandemic with the Sensor. A specific animal would have a small biosensor injected into his bloodstream that will work as a cell but give the information back to the scientists and tell them what is happening in the animals that can potentially start an outbreak. Then when we have detected the possibility we would treat the disease using Cell Therapy and/or Nanoparticles. These methods can either lower the side effects or eventually kill the cells that can start an outbreak. 

We are now at a prototype stage of development. The sensor that is being used to collect data and stop future pandemics is an early design of the BioSensor. The prototype is made from research that was collected over a long period of time. We are hoping to make this a success in the future followed by experiments and trials to make sure that the sensor is at its best when being used to receive the data. 

 The size of our device makes it innovative and unique. The device is small compared to other devices, and it being small makes it easier to place and navigate within the animal. This can provide a positive impact to humanity and biodiversity  since this device brings hope and brighter future with it. The idea of eliminating future pandemics is a dream that can now be achieved.