Fighting Zika on two fronts
UVic chemist Alexandre Brolo is looking to one of society’s most precious metals—gold—and the cutting-edge science of nanotechnology to create low-cost test strips that detect the presence of Zika in saliva. He’s also working on prevention efforts, by creating a smartphone camera app to detect and geotag mosquito larvae in standing water.
Originally from Brazil, Brolo knows what an outbreak of mosquitoborne illness looks like. “I grew up seeing dengue fever. Every year the authorities struggle to control outbreaks, using the same strategies.” This summer, Grand Challenges Canada awarded $50,000 to Brolo for his dual research efforts to alleviate the spreading Zika public health crisis.
Brolo’s team is creating low-cost plastic strips coated with gold nanostructures—microscopic bits of matter 10,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair—that change colour when they come into contact with infected saliva. These screening strips would be used by on-theground health workers to detect infection trends.
Brolo plans to take this detection method directly into the neighbourhoods and regions where Zika and dengue are prevalent.
“If we can provide the right tools to help control the Zika mosquito vector, the outbreak and the infection,” Brolo says, “then we can start to solve the problem.”