The CSIR’s biophotonics research team follows a laser-driven lab-on-a-chip approach which has the potential of converting any test to a point-of-care (POC) diagnostic format. Since infectious diseases such as HIV/Aids are still a major cause of mortality, particularly in the developing world, invention of POC diagnostics could reduce the burden of disease. Improvement of current HIV diagnostics to incorporate immediate viral load testing would have a massive impact in informing treatment decisions and management. Knowing exactly when to start antiretroviral treatment and monitoring its effectiveness may help alleviate some of the current challenges endured by HIV/Aids patients, such as the development of viral resistance.

The POC diagnostics approach of the CSIR biophotonics team is to develop a cost-effective laser-driven HIV-1 diagnostic device that is easy to use at point-of-care settings and in low-resource settings.

The design of a laser-based cell-sorting microchip, coupled with super-resolution imaging and spectroscopic techniques could pave a way into the invention of highly specific HIV-1 diagnostic tools. A kit that not only confirms the presence of HIV-1, but is able to also indicate genotypic information and the viral load. In particular, the team plans to, for the first time, apply and use laser light of novel beam shapes to study sorting and single molecule analysis in HIV-1 infected cells.