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Matthew Osborne, a fourth-year PhD student in the institute for Biomedical Engineering (BME), has been awarded a Jennifer Dorrington Graduate Research Award for 2022.

The award is an important recognition for Osborne, who noted that the past winners included alumni from his lab. He described them as “pretty incredible researchers.”

“I am thrilled to be in such company,” he said.

Osborne is working with BME Director Warren Chan, whose lab is located in the where he is also a principal investigator. The Chan lab is world renowned for developing nanotechnology-based diagnostics method for rapid detection of pathogens.

Osborne, who has a background in mechanical engineering, was tasked with automating the lab’s diagnostic platform for the detection of Sars-CoV-2 into a portable device with a smartphone readout. The method is similar to PCR and therefore highly sensitive, but it also allows point-of care use similar to rapid tests. Osborne, who envisages its use one day in remote communities, is now keenly awaiting real-world data being collected from patient samples by his collaborators at Public Health Ontario.