Making at home tests for autoimmune disease management
By Sarah Shoaf, Staff Writer
Making health screening management easier and more accessible is at the heart of Governors State University (GovState) Professor Walter Henne’s latest research project.
“We’re basically trying to make simple, accurate tests that you can use to monitor inflammatory conditions at home,” said Henne about his project with co-investigator, Venumadhav Korampally, associate professor at Northern Illinois University.
The project, “Affordable Paper-Based Diagnostics for Autoimmune Disease Management in Underserved Communities,” is being funded through the Illinois Innovation Network’s Sustaining Illinois seed grant program, which seeks to increase collaborative research among the state’s public universities.
“One of the things we’re developing is strip-based detection devices that are very similar to the type of devices used for COVID and pregnancy tests,” said Henne. “Basically, you’ll be able to prick your finger and draw some blood to test for common inflammatory markers.”
He also spoke to the need of these tests. “Just because you have a place right there, just because you have means doesn’t matter sometimes,” said Henne. “This kind of test would help sort of reduce that burden.”
As an alumnus of GovState himself, Henne can’t help but think of how this research will benefit the students he teaches. Before, he had to buy commercial test strips, but now he’s looking forward to making them in class.
“The beauty of this grant is the technology we’re doing,” said Henne. “Some of the technology we work with will be incorporated into our courses. We’re going to be able to show students, take them through all the steps, so it should be kind of fun.”
Recently, Henne recruited a Chemistry student, Rachel Myers, to work on the grant with him as part of her undergraduate capstone work. While they're still in the early stages of the project, Henne said the results are promising.
These kinds of tools would help improve early detection and management of autoimmune diseases, like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. It would also hopefully close some of the gaps when it comes to health disparities, added Henne.
“In the U.S. we have a system where people who are more affluent, or even people who are just upper middle class, can run into a lab and get checked any time they need to,” said Henne. “If you live in more rural areas or underserved areas, you’re at a disadvantage because you have to drive miles away.”
With less hospitals available for miles in more rural communities, Henne envisions at home testing allowing for more people to get the screening they need in a more timely fashion, while alleviating potential financial burden. He also hopes this kind of testing will benefit those who face hour-long wait times despite living within minutes of a clinic.
“I think part of the reason we just never thought of people doing these type of tests at home until now is it was an imagination thing,” said Henne. “We thought about wearables and glucose sensors, but the pandemic has sort of opened Pandora's box to allow this.”