MIT Solve

Solution Overview

Solution Name:

SEE-V

One-line solution summary:

Non intrusive detection of Microbial pathogens in Waste water

Pitch your solution.

Through this submission (See-V), we propose to monitor sewage in airports as they remain the gateway for spread of Infectious diseases. Nucleic acid based detection can be leveraged for a host of contagious viruses and bacteria and can be automated using Multiplex technology. This system will be installed for active detection of pathogens in the sewage emanating from airports.

What specific problem are you solving?

See-V is intended to serve as a platform technology for early detection of Pandemics.

What is your solution?

The solution is to develop a Nucleic acid monitoring system using Multiplex PCR to periodically sample sewage, extract nucleic acids and perform analysis for detection of any pathogenic Viral or Bacterial nucleic acids

Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?

Prevention is better than Cure. Current surveillance systems in airports are inadequate in detecting the potential ingress of infectious diseases. We aim to address this pain point.

Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Strengthen disease surveillance, early warning predictive systems, and other data systems to detect, slow, or halt future disease outbreaks.

Explain how the problem you are addressing, the solution you have designed, and the population you are serving align with the Challenge.

Early detection of Pandemics is a challenge we wish to Solve using a autonomous nucleic acid detection system in a non intrusive way.

In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?

Hyderabad, Telangana, India

What is your solution’s stage of development?

Concept: An idea being explored for its feasibility to build a product, service, or business model based on that idea.

Explain why you selected this stage of development for your solution.

See-V is a project we are working on for the Past 3 months. We are currently in the design phase of the project.

Who is the Team Lead for your solution?

sanjith yeruva

More About Your Solution

Which of the following categories best describes your solution?

A new business model or process that relies on technology to be successful

What makes your solution innovative?

The idea (See-V) is based on emerging scientific reports on using sewage to detect corona virus. The following scientific rationale as elucidated in the back ground form the crux of the idea.

Background:
#1 Scientists were able to detect a gene fragment of the novel coronavirus in untreated sewage from two wastewater treatment plants. Used on a wider scale, sewage sampling would be able to detect the approximate number of people infected in a geographic area without testing every individual, the CSIRO said. Officials are currently testing thousands of Australians daily using conventional tests.Sewage surveillance is already used in Israel to monitor circulation of poliovirus.
#2 Corona virus could be detected in faeces within three days, quicker than many cases were being detected with conventional tests.

Idea
What if we can proactively monitor Sewage in international aeroplanes, airports?
Detecting virus from sewage has been reported in USA, Germany, Israel, China, France and Australia till date. So this is a definite possibility. Secondly and importantly automated testing (Nucleic acid) based kits are in the market today which can process multiple samples and give results in a matter of minutes. By combining the strength of automated detection with monitoring of sewage in aeroplanes ,airports we would gain important intelligence on potential pandemic viruses /pathogens in ways not
possible before.

Deployment
See-V can be deployed in places where there is international traffic like airports, International Events and places where there is high international foot traffic.

Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:

Imaging and Sensor Technology

Select the key characteristics of your target population.

Peri-Urban
Urban

Which of the UN Sustainable Development Goals does your solution address?

3. Good Health and Well-being

How many people does your solution currently serve? How many will it serve in one year? In five years?

The idea is at the stage of inception. We are looking for support to evolve the project and perform field trials.

How are you measuring your progress toward your impact goals?

Our Goals are as follows

1)Establishing a Biosafety Lab by August,2021

2) Validate our waste water testing Technology by Oct,2021

3)Patent and Publication by December 2021.

4)Deploy See-V by March, 2022.

About Your Team

What type of organization is your solution team?

For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models

How many people work on your solution team?

Currently we have 4 full time scientific staff including a Medical Physician with expertise in infections on Board.

How long have you been working on your solution?

3 months

How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?

I like to describe myself as a educator and Innovator Some of the accomplishments are outlined below

Academic research

Sungkyunkwan Univeristy,South Korea

Univerity of North Dakota,USA

University of Wisconsin ,Madison.

2020
Finalist MIT Pandemic Response CoLab
Hero X Red palm weevil most promising idea
Hyve MaReK project application for fluorescence marker (2nd place)
Hartmann innovation contest
2013 Nokia Ideas project one of 5 winners(design and develop for planet and people)
2012
• Literacy grand prize winner ,Pearson Foundation
• HEINEKEN’s IdeasBrewery Challenge Best Co-creator
• UNESCO-Nokia literacy project winner
• Rewarded in Myprize contest
• Rewarded in Western Union "world of betters" contest.
• Third prize in i2i contest by Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC). 2011
• Third prize (Innocentive.com), 2010
• Third prize (Innocentive.com), 2010
• Rewarded (Atizo.com), 2009
•First prize (Innocentive.com), 2008

• Finalist in CISCO I prize, GE ecomagination, Hapinoy Fisherman contest. & Wipro-Wharton contest 2010.Heineken Ideas brewery finalist(2012), Lockheed Martin challenge finalist 2012)

Publications:

Nucleic Acids Research

. 2009 Jul;37(13):4353-9.
doi: 10.1093/nar/gkp364. Epub 2009 May 21.

Base extrusion is found at helical junctions between right- and left-handed forms of DNA and RNA

Doyoun Kim 1, Sanjith Reddy, Dong Young Kim, Alexander Rich, Sangho Lee, Kyeong Kyu Kim, Yang-Gyun Kim

What is your approach to building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive leadership team?

Currently ,We are a small team.Our scientific team is constituted by Male and Female scientists in equal proportion (2+2). We are equal opportunity employer interms of giving giving equal opportunity, pay and recognition in our firm and intend to keep it that way.

Your Business Model & Partnerships

Partnership & Prize Funding Opportunities

Why are you applying to Solve?

We hope to receive funding to support our Project.

In which of the following areas do you most need partners or support?

Monitoring & Evaluation (e.g. collecting/using data, measuring impact)

Please explain in more detail here.

We seek support to Monitor and evaluate the results from experts in Molecular Biology during the course of our Validation. Eventually We also wound need support of AI experts to draw meaningful conclusions once we gather enough data

What organizations would you like to partner with, and how would you like to partner with them?

We would like to partner with Center for DNA finger printing and Diagnostics, Hyderabd,India

Do you qualify for and would you like to be considered for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Prize? If you select Yes, explain how you are qualified for the prize in the additional question that appears.

No, I do not wish to be considered for this prize, even if the prize funder is specifically interested in my solution

Do you qualify for and would you like to be considered for The Andan Prize for Innovation in Refugee Inclusion? If you select Yes, explain how you are qualified for the prize in the additional question that appears.

No, I do not wish to be considered for this prize, even if the prize funder is specifically interested in my solution

Do you qualify for and would you like to be considered for the Innovation for Women Prize? If you select Yes, explain how you are qualified for the prize in the additional question that appears.

No, I do not wish to be considered for this prize, even if the prize funder is specifically interested in my solution

Do you qualify for and would you like to be considered for The AI for Humanity Prize? If you select Yes, explain how you are qualified for the prize in the additional question that appears.

No, I do not wish to be considered for this prize, even if the prize funder is specifically interested in my solution

Do you qualify for and would you like to be considered for The Global Fund Prize? If you select Yes, explain how you are qualified for the prize in the additional question that appears.

No