Empowering Africa's Point of Care with Cutting-edge Graphene Biosensing for Rapid Detection and Interconnected Surveillance of Novel Ebola Virus Outbreaks

Our goals

The graphene-based biosensors enable faster and more accurate pathogen detection, empowering health professionals and policymakers to make informed decisions for outbreak management and control measures. The main objective is to enable rapid, reliable and remote diagnosis of Ebola infection by measuring specific biomarkers in peripheral blood samples of suspected patients.
Develop a Point-of-Care Biosensing Platform

Create and clinically validate a user-friendly biosensing device that enables rapid diagnosis of Ebola infections directly at the point of care.

Implement AI-Based Surveillance Systems

Integrate advanced artificial intelligence to facilitate real-time monitoring and analysis of epidemiological data, ensuring timely interventions during outbreaks.

Strengthen Local Healthcare Capacity

Provide training and resources to local healthcare professionals and communities, enhancing their ability to detect and respond to Ebola effectively.

Our approach

This project aims to develop, validate, and clinically test a highly innovative Point of Care (PoC) biosensing platform, based on the groundbreaking concept of multiplexing graphene field-effect sensors, each individually functionalized with specific biomolecules (antibodies, proteins, etc.). This  platform will have an AI-based cloud networking data processing: local diagnostics will be transmitted to a central server, and processed by custom-made AI software, triggering health warnings to all interconnected platforms if necessary.

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How we work

Our strategy will ensure a cost-effective remote triage, thus, enabling an efficient and immediate shared response to potential local outbreaks thanks to its ability to update the global epidemiological evolution in real time.
WP1
WP2
WP3
WP4
WP5
WP6
WP7
WP8

WP1 - Project management & coordination

Lead and manage the project, ensuring consortium partners are aligned with goals and work plan implementation.

  • Overall coordination of the project
  • Continuous reporting structure for the timely submission of reports, establish reporting procedures to the European Commission, develop project quality assurance guidelines, oversee potential risks, and develop strategies for the overall risk management
  • Develop the Data Management Plan

WP Leader

WP2 - Scientific Project Leadership and Management

Provide scientific management, governance, and leadership for the project.

  • Define a document that collects all the scientific planning and governance
  • Organise and coordinate the EPoCA Project Advisory Board meetings and invite external experts and maintaining a critical strength of the members offering an expert advice and feedback on the project development
  • Formulation and documentation of scientific requirements, which serve as the foundation for the project's research and development activities

WP Leader

WP3 - BioGFET-Chips preparation and biosensing platform requirements

Fabricate a user-friendly portable PoC (Point-of-Care) device that enables the confinement and multiplexed analysis of patient samples.

  • Design of graphene sensors & requirements
  • Fabrication of die prototypes & packaging  GFET surface functionalization workflow development
  • Cartridge development & microfluidic integration  Scale up & pilot production

WP Leader

WP4 - Device production, manufacturing, and platform interoperability

Integrate the PoC cartridge into an IoT platform that enables real-time monitoring of the patient's status and surveillance of pandemic risks using artificial intelligence.

  • Analyze existing datasets and output datasets to define a standardized data model and a common vocabulary that can be used in any use case across Africa and Europe, ensuring the replicability of the solution
  • Designing, producing and manufacturing an IoT sensor for clinical environments,  integrating the graphene biosensors
  • Develop a sentinel program for automatic detection of deviations from locally modeled data
  • Develop a platform based on an IoT-Edge-Cloud architecture that will integrate all the outputs from WP3

WP Leader

WP5 - Preclinical and clinical validation of the biosensing platform

Determine the analytical characteristics of the diagnostic platform at laboratory level and its diagnostic limits and potential for the subsequent deployment in a real scenario and to determine the diagnostic ability of the proposed biosensor platform in a real scenario by comparing the diagnostic results achieved by EPoCA platform vs clinical standard techniques and using clinical samples obtained from patients diagnosed with Ebola virus.

  • Identification of requirements and production of specifications for preclinical and clinical validation activities
  • Preparation, planning and coordination of preclinical and clinical validation activities
  • Preclinical validation of the biosensing platform and sentinel service

WP Leader

WP6 - Regulatory Aspects

Address regulatory aspects of the EPoCA project, with a goal of maximizing the viability of the proposed solution.

  • Ensure legal and personal data protection compliance by default and by design
  • Analysis of relevant standards taking into consideration on-going standardisation initiatives, with a particular focus on hospital locations, installations, medical devices and PPE solutions and relevant standardisation committees and organizations
  • Data ethics and associated topics to this project
  • Review the main EU and African regulations on medical device and environmental impact, analyse them and produce a policy brief on existing gaps and recommendation for bridging them

WP Leader

WP7 - Exploitation and commercialization

Profile the exploitation strategy for EPoCA project, to identify meaningful outcomes and ensure that they are properly exploited and communicated to relevant stakeholders, maximising the impact of the project ensuring legal and personal data protection compliance by default and by design.

  • IPR and Innovation Strategy driving sustainability
  • Exploitation plan to formalise a business proposal for post-project development/ commercialisation and investment needs, creating a detailed business plan
  • Generate new technologies, diagnostic tools, reusable data, and best practices recommendations

WP Leader

WP8 - Communication and Dissemination

Communicate the research outcomes, promote the portfolio of therapeutics and diagnostic tools developed within the project, address social dynamics, improve risk communication, engage stakeholders, support policy development and the adoption of best practices, and enhance capacity building and training opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa.

  • Develop a comprehensive project’s communication framework
  • Prioritize the diffusion of project outcomes, expand the project's network, and strengthen relationships between the Consortium and identified stakeholders.
  • Risk communication strategies and materials tailored to different target groups and communities
  • Dissemination and knowledge exchange

WP Leader

The study: validation in Africa

The EPOCA project is being implemented in two key pilot sites, strategically chosen to maximize the impact of our innovative biosensing technology in real-world settings:‍
Democratic Republic of Congo
Institut National de Recherche Biomedicale du Zaire

As one of the countries most affected by Ebola outbreaks, the DRC serves as a critical site for testing and validating our rapid diagnostic tools. Collaborating with the Institut National de Recherche Biomedicale (INRB), we aim to enhance local healthcare capabilities and improve outbreak response strategies through our biosensing platform.

ghana
University
of Ghana

This site focuses on strengthening surveillance systems and empowering healthcare workers with the necessary tools and training to effectively manage potential Ebola threats.These pilot sites are instrumental in refining our technology and ensuring it meets the specific needs of healthcare professionals in regions vulnerable to Ebola outbreaks.

THE CONSORTIUM

Contact us now!

info@epocaproject.eu

info@epocaproject.eu

The project EPoCA has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement Nº 101145795