Portable Molecular Platform to Advance Point-of-Care Testing for Lassa Fever

Lassa fever remains a persistent public health threat in West Africa, causing an estimated 100,000–300,000 infections annually and high case fatality rates among hospitalized patients. Clinical management is hampered by delays when samples must be transported to distant laboratories under challenging logistics. Faster, site-based diagnosis is critical for both patient care and outbreak control. 

Alveo Technologies and The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) have formed a partnership to develop point-of-care diagnostics for viral hemorrhagic fevers, with an initial focus on Lassa fever. The collaboration supports UTMB’s Lassa fever research program and is intended to provide immediate testing capability at participating clinical sites. The effort is structured within an open-platform partner model that also enables academic teams to build assays for priority pathogens.

Image: Lassa fever remains a major public health threat in West Africa, causing 100,000–300,000 infections annually and high fatality rates, making faster site-based diagnosis critical for care and outbreak control (Image Credit: Shutterstock)

The diagnostic approach centers on a portable, cloud-connected molecular platform designed to deliver laboratory-quality detection at the point of need. Real-time analysis is performed on site, and results are transmitted through an accompanying application to support rapid decision-making. The platform is being validated to maintain performance across variable operator experience, environmental conditions, and individual analyzer units.

Before deployment to diverse field settings, the system is undergoing high-containment evaluation at UTMB’s Galveston National Laboratory under biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) conditions. In related work that demonstrates environmental robustness, the platform was field tested in Peru for avian influenza surveillance, where teams assessed operation in warm, humid, and dusty environments. All testing materials were transported in a small bag, and results were returned on site in real time via the application interface. The collaboration is part of a broader partner program that connects research institutions and industry to accelerate assay development for settings with significant unmet public health needs. Operations at the Galveston National Laboratory were supported by National Institutes of Health grant UC7AI094660 for BSL-4 operations.

“There is a clear and immediate need for a reliable point-of-care diagnostic for Lassa fever. Having immediate diagnostic capabilities at our field sites will fundamentally change how we respond to Lassa fever cases in affected communities,” said Dr. Courtney Woolsey, Professor in UTMB's Department of Microbiology & Immunology and Principal Investigator of the Lassa fever research program.

“UTMB is helping us to further push the capabilities of molecular testing to support critical research and outbreak response in the world's most remote locations. Beyond the development of a diagnostic for Lassa Fever, UTMB faculty are engaged in validating and deploying our technology in exactly the types of real-world applications our technology was designed for,” said Shaun Holt, CEO of Alveo Technologies.