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PREEMIEr Glucose Test for Premature Babies

Our lab test will help doctors control blood sugar of premature babies
January 5×5 Night at Start Garden
Voting Closes:

January 20, 2025 11:59 pm

About this idea
Premature babies (“preemies”) have trouble controlling their blood sugar. This is a problem because when glucose levels are not properly maintained, brain and eye development are affected. Our technology is an ELISA lab test that uses just one drop of blood. It gives newborns a voice. It lets them tell us whether they are having trouble with blood sugar control. This important information leads to more immediate and better treatment. Thus, our technology will help prevent blindness, seizures, learning disabilities and other devastating problems that commonly affect premature babies.
Impact
Over 1 million US newborns have trouble controlling their blood sugar. Premature infants and children born to diabetic moms are the ones at highest risk. Glucose is the main fuel of the brain and the eyes. Problems with glucose control can cause blindness and other serious problems with brain development. Right now, there are no way to know how well babies are controlling their blood sugar over a period of time. Our lab test is about to change all that. It will give us an estimate of how well the infant has been controlling blood sugar even before birth. This information will enable doctors to better manage the glucose levels in newborns to improve both eye and brain health.
What I'll do with $5,000
The prize money from this competition will have a HUGE impact on our ability to move forward. Over the last year, we have made substantial progress in developing our assay. That said, in recent weeks, we found out that the antibodies that we had chosen for our assay were not as specific as the manufacturers had claimed. This has been a setback for us and will delay the submission of our $1.5 million SBIR NIH grant. At this time, we need to test our assay with a new set of antibodies. This prize money will allow us to do that so that we can move forward with our grant submission.
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