Nearly two decades after the deadly SARS infection, the National Institutes of Health has awarded eight grants to develop new technologies for diagnosing children at risk of the illness.
Specifically, the grants will help researchers develop tools to quickly and accurately identify children at risk of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C), which can result in inflammation of one or more organs, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, and gastrointestinal tract, reports the CDC.
While some children develop mild symptoms from COVID-19, which causes fever and bacterial infections, others develop MIS-C, which results in inflammation of one or more organs.
"These highly innovative technologies and tools have the potential to greatly improve the care of children with SARS-CoV-2 infection and other fever-causing illnesses," says Dr. Bill Kapannis, director of the NIH's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, which oversees the grants.
More than 7,400 participants in four countries took part in the studies, which led to prototype methods and techniques for potential use in clinics, emergency departments, and for hospital inpatients, per the NIH.
A customized collection of grant news from foundations and the federal government from around the Web.
Social enterprise, HandiConnect, wins the Audacious-Business Idea competition’s Doing Good category. The company is spearheaded by University of Otago entrepreneurship master’s student Nguyen Cam Van.