Harnessing the power of nanotechnology, mobile phones and big data for global health

Professor Rachel McKendry, is Professor of Biomedical Nanotechnology at UCL and holds a joint position at the London Centre for Nanotechnology and Division of Medicine. She holds the Institute of Physics Paterson Medal, Royal Society Wolfson Merit Award and the prestigious Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award and Lecture for her proposal to launch a national competition to inspire women to become leaders in STEM.

Professor Rachel McKendry will present her research to create a new generation of mobile phone connected diagnostic tests for infectious diseases. The widespread use of mobile phones could dramatically increase access to testing outside of hospital settings, particularly in developing countries. Rachel will also present the research foundations of a global early-warning system for infectious diseases that links the millions of symptoms that are self-reported on the web each day to mobile phone connected tests, in real-time and with geographically-linked information. This research lies at the cutting edge of infectious diseases, nanotechnology, telecommunications, big data and public health.