Low-Cost Microscope from Stanford Takes Top Prize at DEBUT

A team from Stanford University has won the top prize at the National Institutes of Health’s ninth annual Design by Biomedical Undergraduate Teams (DEBUT) competition. The team's device, the onchoscope, is a low-cost microscope designed to diagnose onchocerciasis, also known as river blindness. The device is able to diagnose the disease more accurately than the current standard of care, and can also be used to monitor the parasitic load over time to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment. The onchoscope, developed by students at Stanford University, earned the Steven H. Krosnick prize of $20,000.

Another microscope, the cytoscope, earned a prize of $15,000 from the Office of AIDS Research. The device is a low-cost microscope that is able to quickly analyze blood samples to monitor the progression of HIV and to warn patients whether the disease has progressed. The device was created by a team from Johns Hopkins University.