Health

Yes, that is correct, A Salad Spinner Centrifuge!

Undergraduate students at Rice University in Houston Texas, Lila Kerr and Lauren Theis have created a way to diagnose anemia without power using a low cost portable device.

The "Sally Centrifuge" came out of a class project in the two students Introduction to Bioengineering and World Health Class. The product can successfully separate blood to allow diagnosis of anemia with no electricity. It costs around $30 to produce and can process 30, 15 microliter blood samples in about 20 minutes.

Many people go through the day not being concerned with patents and their roll on human life. However, as described by the following article, patents do have a direct affect on our lives more importantly in the medical field. The article, written by Kari Lydersen, discusses a patent on a gene mutation test, which if found to be positive will show women that they are more likely to develop breast and ovarian cancer. Unfortunately the costs are keeping women from being able to gain access to the test.

We at M-CAM, Home of the Global Innovation Commons have had the opportunity to make many connections over our years in business. One of these connections has been with world renowned photographer Chip Duncan, of The Duncan Group. His 2009 publishing "Enough To Go Around: Searching For Hope In Afghanistan, Pakistan & Darfur" focused on finding hope in the wake of international crises. He has had the ability to capture and take note of the devastation occurring in Haiti.

In an on–going effort to build relevance in international efforts to stimulate the engagement of creativity around the world, the World Bank and International Finance Corporation"s infoDev has published a briefing paper on technology transfer and commercialization. The following is an excerpt from the paper which can be downloaded in its entirety HERE.

Health, agriculture, water and food security technology transfer require a depth of moral engagement frequently considered (with regret) post facto.