International student Xiao Li, a post-doctoral researcher in the faculty of Science and Technology, was selected by the scientific editors of the Dutch weekly magazine Intermediair for her remarkable dissertation paper.
She will be presenting her research concerning a portable monitoring instrument for HIV-infected patients at the award ceremony for the Most Appealing Dissertation (MAD) in Amsterdam on April 22. The MAD award is given to honor an exceptional PhD student, who has written an outstanding, original and creative dissertation. Here are some excerpts from an interview with Li.
In Feb2008, seventy-five PhD students sent in their submissions from all over Europe. You were nominated as one of five candidates for the MAD Award.
`Actually, it is 3 out of 75 now!'
When did you find out about this last round of selections?
`Yesterday, a member of the selection jury called to inform me that I had been selected as one of the final three candidates.'
Can you describe in layman's terms your research for this project?
`The project, `AIDS in Africa, Affordable CD4 Enumeration,'is funded by the Dutch Technology Foundation (STW) in the Netherlands. The goal of this project is to build an easy-to-use and affordable CD4 enumeration system for HIV staging in resource-constrained settings. Our system identifies target cells using immuno-magnetic selection and immuno-flourescent staining technology. The instrument is an automatic computer-controlled fluorescent microscope, which is built from cheap materials. After pushing the start button on the touch screen, in one minute, the fluorescent image of targeted cells is recorded and analyzed and the cell count is shown on the touch screen.'
Who helped to develop this technology?
`Professors Jan Greve and Leon Terstappen. Jan Greve gave me the opportunity to work as a post-doc, but he also has been giving me endless encouragement and guidance. Dr. Aurel Ymeti and Ing. Christian Breukers have been working on the instrumentation part of the project. My primary role is to develop and test the immuno-cytochemical methods, and also perform the clinical trails, and the field tests of the systems.
What are some of the advantages of your discovery compared with the traditional flow-cytometer instrument?
`The traditional flow-cytometer instrument is the gold standard method for CD4 enumeration, however it is very expensive, costing $20,000 - $125,000 USD. Testing patients is also expensive, costing $10.00 -$50.00 USD per test, and the device needs a well-trained operator, frequent maintenance, and a stable continuous source of electricity. The advantages to our portable device are affordability ($3,000 USD/instrument and $3.00 USD/test), user-friendliness, rechargeable battery supported, and it is suitable for use in point-of-care settings.'
Have you applied for a patent for this screening device?
`No. We have a close cooperation with Immunicon Corporation. We use the immuno-magnetic separation technology from them. And after we had achieved the first CD4 enumeration prototype, we transferred our design to them. Based on our system, they built an updated and more complicated instrument, which has been submitted for patent approval.'
Have you started collecting data from testing sites throughout the world?
`In 2005, our first CD4 enumeration system was tested in South Africa. I traveled thousands of kilometers through the Kwa Zulu Natal (KZN) province with the instrument in the back trunk of a car. KZN is the most populated province of the country with a population of 8.4 million, and also the province with the highest HIV infection rate, effecting 36.5 percent of the population. During this two week trip to seven hospitals, the instrument proved to be highly portable, compact, robust and very stable.'
More recently, have you conducted research in other countries?
`In 2007, a more advanced instrument was tested in the Siriraj hospital in Bangkok, Thailand. This hospital was the first established hospital in Thailand, and nowadays it is one of the biggest hospitals in Southeast Asia. In six weeks, I had preformed tests on blood samples from 506 HIV- positive patients. This was a very successful field test.'
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| Xiao Li |
Research area: Affordable CD4 Enumeration for HIV Staging in Resource-constrained Settings.
Age: 32
Place of Birth: Yellow Mountain, China.
Favorite Book: Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen).
Book on your night stand: The Kite Runner (Afghan-born American writer Khaled Hosseini).
Admired philosopher: Confucius
Favorite Music: Expression of your eyes (Qin Cai).
Quote: `Be the first to feel concern about state affairs and the last to enjoy yourself.' (Fan Zhong-Yan, 1044 A.C., Song Dynasty)
