EChiLiBRiST

Development and validation of a quantitative point-of-care test for the measurement of severity biomarkers to improve risk stratification of fever syndromes and enhance child survival

EChiLiBRiST – Enhancing Children’s Lives with Biomarkers for Risk Stratification and Triage, is a consortium of 13 institutions from Europe, Africa and North America convened to develop and clinically validate a quantitative point-of-care test for the measurement of severity biomarkers to improve risk stratification of fever syndromes and thus, enhance child survival.

This five year project is funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme. The project consists of two distinct yet complementary workstreams – 1) Design and validation of the device and establishing the exploitation and regulatory pathways; 2) Clinical trials and sub-studies in 3 African countries to assess the impact of the introduction of the device for risk stratification purposes, to enhance outcomes, guide management, and save costs.

The Consortium

The EChiLiBRiST consortium is led by ISGlobal and includes:

• Eberhard Karls Universitaet Tuebingen
• Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
• BioEclosion
• Eurecat
• Asphalion
• Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù
• Centro de Investigação em Saúde da Manhiça
• Haramaya University
• Centre de Recherches Médicales de Lambaréné
• University Health Network
• London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
• London School of Economics

UAB-IBB

The UAB-IBB group is involved in the design and the retrospective validation of a rapid test based on a magneto-actuated biosensor for quantitative assessment of sTREM-1 and Ang-2 at the point of care. The development includes the selection of the best antibody pair for further immobilization on magnetic particles, and the integration on magneto-actuated immunoassays based on chimioluminiscence readout using firstly as a support 96-wells plates and an external microplate magnet, and a bench top microplate reader. Further development involves the integration of the systems in commercial screen-printed electrode withelectrochemical readout, using a portable electrochemical reader in combination with an electrochemical reporter, obtaining a preliminary laboratory prototype. Finally, a final laboratory prototype requiring minimal handling and a portable reader is evaluated.

Total funding

€6,535,672.00 (awarded by European Commission – Horizon Europe)

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101057114.