Giner Receives NIH National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Grant
Giner Inc. has received the first year of a two-year Phase II SBIR grant from NIH's National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to develop a Field-Deployable Monitor to Assess Personal Exposure to Multiple Heavy Metals.
Online, October 12, 2009 (Newswire.com) - For Immediate Release
Giner Inc., a research and development company located in Newton MA, has received the first year of a two-year Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to develop a Field-Deployable Monitor to Assess Personal Exposure to Multiple Heavy Metals including arsenic, cadmium, and lead. This program is part of the Genes and the Environment Initiative at NIH to provide measurement tools. The award totals $2,306,959 over two years.
Exposure to heavy metals can come from drinking water as well as environmental and industrial sources, and causes a variety of serious medical problems. Long-term consumption of metals such as arsenic can cause skin, liver, and bladder cancer. "Knowledge of human exposure in the population facilitates design of regulations concerning health protection, determination of exposure limits, and prevention of diseases caused by trace heavy metals." said Dr. Linda Tempelman, Director of Biomedical Research at Giner Inc.
Currently, analyses of heavy metals in biological fluids are usually performed in centralized laboratories, but according to Dr. Badawi Dweik, the project's Principal Investigator, the high labor and instrument costs, coupled with long processing delays, has created a need for a portable and inexpensive on-site monitoring system. The new technology is aimed at creating such a small, low-power handheld device to measure heavy metals.
Giner, Inc. anticipates the device will be developed over the next two years, undergo validation studies at the Harvard School of Public Health, and be available for application to population studies at the end of the development period.
About Giner, Inc.
Giner, Inc. is a privately held small business established in 1973. Its goal is the development of electrochemical technologies including fuel cells, sensors, and biomedical devices such as self-contained transdermal alcohol sensors and environmental gas sensors.
Contact Information
Badawi Dweik, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
E-mail : [email protected]
Phone 781 529 0520
Tony Vaccaro, Ph.D.
President, Giner, Inc.
E-mail: [email protected]
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Tags: Heavy Metal Water Contamination, Research and Development, Sensors
