果冻影院

Rachel McKendry is Professor of Biomedical Nanoscience at 果冻影院 and Director of the . Her research lies at the cutting edge of quantum technologies, deep learning and telecommunications for infectious diseases and public health.

McKendry led the i-sense team to help tackle a range of infections from HIV to the global response to COVID-19, developing new diagnostics and analysing data for public health surveillance. She is also working to transform the ability to accurately interpret HIV results with the use of 鈥榥anodiamonds鈥�, which have heightened sensitivity to detect virus proteins in blood.

McKendry hopes to use the 拢350,000 prize to utilise her team鈥檚 recent breakthroughs with nanodiamond diagnostics to revolutionise the early diagnosis of antimicrobial resistance. If successful, this ground-breaking early-stage research could lay the foundations of next stage translational funding, and open up applications to other communicable and non-communicable diseases.

She explained: 鈥淚t is a tremendous honour to receive the . I would like to dedicate this prize to my wonderful team and i-sense collaborators. With this funding, we aim to develop proof-of-concept ultra-sensitive quantum-enhanced tests for antimicrobial resistance, and will explore novel advanced materials and device configurations for use in decentralised clinical settings. Antibiotics underpin modern medicine, but the rise of drug-resistance 鈥� the silent pandemic 鈥� is a huge clinical and public health concern.

鈥淭here is an urgent need for new diagnostic tests that can detect early infections and to improve antibiotic stewardship. I am also really excited to lead a public engagement initiative to raise the visibility of the hidden heroes of diagnostics 鈥� the engineers and scientists behind diagnostic tests that have been so vital to the COVID-19 pandemic response.鈥�

Dr Gopi said: 鈥淭he IET鈥檚 A F Harvey Engineering Research Prize supports the world鈥檚 best scientists and engineers to advance their research. Professor McKendry is leading the way in public health and diagnostics with her pioneering work at the intersection of biology, digital, and materials. I鈥檇 like to congratulate her on this award 鈥� we are excited to support the next phase of her research.鈥�

Professor McKendry will present her work at a , hosted by the IET, on 14 March 2024. The event will be broadcast live and followed by a Q&A session.

With this year鈥檚 theme focusing on medical engineering and technology, the prestigious A F Harvey Engineering Research Prize is awarded to a world-leading engineer from the fields of medical, microwave and radar or laser/optoelectronic engineering to enable them to continue further research.