A malaria diagostic device has been developed recently in our research group. This device exploits the unique magnetic and optical properties of malaria pigment crystals, formed in human blood during the course of the infection. While its high sensitivity was already demonstrated in clinical tests, we are going to increase the throughput of the device, whose capacity is currently limited to the diagnosis of max. 20-30 samples a day due to long protocol required to remove, clean and refill the sample holder for each blood sample.

The task of the master student will the design, the development and the test of a new flow-type sample holder, which will be permanently fixed in the device and will be cleaned and refilled for each measurement using fluidic cell connected to a sample injection platform and the cleaning bath. The automatization of the sample exchange, i.e. the flow control, is also a part of the research tasks. This fuidic cell may also be integrated with a unit used for the magnetic enrichment of malaria pigment crystals or malaria infected red blood cells. The master student can also participate in our related projects aiming at the further development of malaria diagnosis as well as the screening of novel antimalarial drug candidates.