Our project focuses on the development of a user-friendly, cost-effective and stable, aptamer-based solution to detect uropathogenic bacteria at the point of care. We aim to develop a multiplex aptamer capable of screening and identifying several pathogenic bacterial species that cause Urinary Tract Infections.

Who are our customers?

Our solution benefits women of all age groups, people living in rural set-ups or are from economically weaker sections of the society and people with uncontrolled diabetes, both in the urban and the rural environments. Women tend to experience Urinary Tract Infections more frequently due to their shorter urethra. Nearly fifty to sixty percent of women, worldwide, experience urinary tract infections at least once in their lifetime, with twenty to thirty percent of these women experiencing recurring infections.

People living in the rural set-ups suffer from two main problems: lesser washrooms with good sanitation and hygiene, and the lack of proper healthcare services. Villages do not have public washrooms that are regularly maintained by the Municipal Corporations. This prompts the villagers to defecate openly and therefore have poor genital hygiene. Also, doctors tend to misdiagnose Urinary Tract Infections due to its symptoms overlapping with other common infections. The consistent prescription of antibiotics and paracetamol also causes antibiotic resistance in the patients.

People with uncontrolled diabetes have a higher tendency to experience UTIs due to their compromised immune system. Studies show that 46.9 out of 1000 diabetic patients have been affected by UTIs, as compared to 29.9 out of 1000 for patients without diabetes. The pathogenesis of UTIs, as explained by Dr. R. M. Anjana, Managing Director, Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre, and Vice President of Madras Diabetes Research Foundation, is as follows:

How will people benefit from this solution?

Our solution has several advantages, some of them are highlighted below:

1. Cost-effective: In the rural set-up, it is very difficult to develop high-end infrastructure like laboratory conditions and maintenance of a cold chain required to conduct the antibody-based tests. Setting up a laboratory costs immensely. Our solution will benefit people from economically weaker backgrounds due to its lack of a need for a cold chain.
2. No need for technical expertise: For antibody-based tests, people with technical expertise are required to perform the cell culture and analyse the results obtained on the petridish. However, in the rural set-up, this is not feasible. Our solution is extremely user-friendly and requires just a basic knowledge regarding the collection of samples. The colorimetric detection scheme provided in a legend will help the patient determine easily if they are affected with UTIs or not.
3. Rapid: While antibody-based tests take 2-3 days to provide a result, our solution can determine the result within 5-10 minutes.

This provides the users within an unprecedented advantage over the patients undergoing the antibody-tests and allows them to detect UTIs at the early stage. The mortality rates of patients with UTIs can be predicted to drop drastically once patients begin using our solution.

The Start-Up Initiative

IISER Berhampur, situated in the state of Odisha, India, was provided the opportunity to participate in a State Government organized initiative called the Odisha Start-up Yatra 2.0, that encourages students to put forth their start-up ideas and compete amongst themselves to be awarded monetarily by the Chief Minister of the State. Our team members represented and presented our project at the National Institute of Science and Technology, Brahmapur, and competed amongst several other teams to get selected for the final round, where we would have to present directly to the Chief Minister. This was a great achievement for our team and we are incredibly proud and excited to present our project on such a large stage, nationally.