Dr Leah Frenette is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Prof Molly Stevens group at Imperial College London. Her research area and insterests cover nanomaterials chemistry, developing new nanoparticles and investigating how they can be used in infectious disease diagnostics. In this short interview, Leah shares with us her career so far and how she's adapted her research during the COVID-19 lockdown period.
Pandemics, such as COVID-19, are usually assumed to spread rapidly within the population. In reality, the population is more heterogeneous with regard to risk, and there will be large variation on the basis of geography, workplace and other key factors.
Analysing data on a national level therefore risks hiding this heterogeneity and compromises the most effective public health response. New analysis from i-sense researchers at University College London suggests COVID-19 has such diverse effects on the different local authorities in the UK.
The team at i-sense have been working collaboratively across institutions to develop point-of-care diagnostic tests for COVID-19. When the UK went into lockdown in mid-March, a small group of researchers were given special access to i-sense labs in London and quickly implemented appropriate measures to ensure they could continue this important work safely.
Professor Molly Stevens’ team have been awarded £50,000 in funding from the new Imperial College COVID-19 Response Fund to develop point-of-care diagnostics for the current pandemic.
Led by Prof Molly Stevens, the i-sense team at Imperial College London have received over €500,000 in funding from the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) as part of their COVID-19 Rapid Response Call.
i-sense has received £500,000 in funding from the Engineering and Physical Research Council (EPSRC) to urgently assist with the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Scientists from i-sense are calling on technology companies to work with researchers and governments to help curb the COVID-19 pandemic by sharing their data in a legal, proportionate, ethical and privacy-preserving manner.
In response to the recent outbreak of the new coronavirus (COVID-19), i-sense researchers have been working collaboratively to rapidly adapt our tools and technologies to support development of emergency diagnostics and surveillance to assess the prevalence of the virus.
i-sense research into connected diagnostics was highlighted at the World Economic Forum this year by i-sense Deputy Director, Prof Molly Stevens.
Researchers from the m-Africa and i-sense projects have been working with communities in rural South Africa to understand how mobile health (mHealth) interventions can help address barriers to HIV testing and linkage to care. The formative work has just been published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.
