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Harvard University picks interest in Makerere Students’ Cancer Biosensor project
The team that worked on the Biosensor project for detection of Toxic Cancer Causing substances in the environment at the Department of Biochemistry at the College of Natural Sciences at Makerere University on February 20, 2024. PHOTO BY STEPHEN OTAGE
What you need to know:
- Harvard University picked interest in the project because it presented a promising start-up to develop biosensors that will solve cancer problems around the world using the biosensor. The students are being prepared to pitch the idea to the Chief Executive Officers of established biotechnology companies in the US.
Harvard University Innovations Incubator has shown interest in ideas by a group of students from Makerere University who developed a biosensor which can detect cancer causing substances in water and the environment.
The university picked interest in the project by Makerere University College of Natural Sciences (CONAS) and will support them to develop their idea into a global product to help with cancer treatment.
The Harvard University Incubator selected the student's innovative project in December 2023 as the only African Project to participate in the four months online Global Nucleate Activation Program beginning on May 21, 2024.
Dr Julius Mulindwa (L) the Principal Investigator of the Biosensor for detection of Toxic Cancer Causing substances in the environment poses for a photo with some of the students researching on the project at the Department of Biochemistry at the College of Natural Sciences at Makerere University on February 20, 2024. PHOTO BY STEPHEN OTAGE
Dr Julius Mulindwa, a Principal Investigator at the Department of Biochemistry at the College of Natural Sciences said;
“Some of these initiatives are driven by international competition. Now you can see after winning the medal, it has created the need to start investing in them. Before Covid 19, government wasn’t investing in science but now they are. These students got exposure from Cambridge and Harvard and they created the network,” he told Monitor on February 20.
Dr Mulindwa asked Makerere University administration and government to support students with unique ideas to travel and participate in International Conferences that give them exposure.
Mr Micheal Okea, a fourth year Medicine and Surgery student and the project team lead at Makerere University said their team of seven applied to participate in the 2023 International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition in Paris France where the only other African countries participating were Ghana and Egypt.
Mr Okea's team presented a biosensor for detection of toxic cancer causing substances in the environment at the competition which won them silver medal.
The project used the biosensor technology to prove a high concentration of 16 cancer causing substances in water sources such as spring wells, boreholes and streams in Kawempe Division, a Kampala suburb.
He said the incubator program in May 2024 is to prepare them for research and development, validate the idea, and also advise them how best to package and market it, make the team understand the economics involved.
Two of the team members that worked on the Biosensor for detection of Toxic Cancer Causing substances in the environment at Makerere University on February 20, 2024. PHOTO/STEPHEN OTAGE
Harvard University picked interest in the project because it presented a promising start-up to develop biosensors that will solve cancer problems around the world using the biosensor. The students are being prepared to pitch the idea to the Chief Executive Officers of established biotechnology companies in the US.
