This Partnerships for Innovation: Building Innovation Capacity (PFI:BIC) project from Cornell University aims to develop a simple, cost-effective technology to obtain personal micronutritional status using a smartphone. This system would provide this information allowing users to accurately track their nutritional status directly rather than relying on guesses based on diet. The "NutriPhone" system is comprised of a hardware accessory that attaches to a smartphone, custom test strips that accept a blood sample and conduct a detection assay, and a software app. The app operates the smartphone, interprets the test strip results, displays the results to the user in an intuitive fashion, and provides therapeutic suggestions, if needed. The personalized self-report and automated data streams are expected to yield greater awareness and self-management of health and diet.
Vitamin and micronutrient deficiencies are responsible for a multitude of adverse health conditions, including anemia, rickets, scurvy, adverse pregnancy outcomes, infant growth inhibition, osteoporosis, and cancer. Worldwide, over 1,000,000 people die every year from vitamin A and zinc deficiencies alone. Domestically, as many as half of patients with hip fractures are thought to be vitamin D deficient. Fortunately, many deficiencies and their symptoms are reversible through changes in diet or by taking supplements, particularly if detected early. Very few people, however, have information as to their own personal micronutrient status, what the potential outcomes of their deficiencies are, or the recommended treatments. Having nutritional status information could significantly enable healthier living. In addition to commercial outreach, NutriPhone technology will be integrated into Cornell's Division of Nutritional Sciences' community extension programs both domestically and internationally, including the NutritionWorks program (nutritionworks.cornell.edu), to improve and strengthen capacity, particularly around nutrition and health.
A unique nanoparticle-based binding reaction allows the creation of an optical contrast depending on the level of the particular marker (e.g., vitamin D). The technology allows the measurement of this optical contrast using the smartphone camera, which is integral to every smartphone. Among the important aspects of this use of the smartphone camera is that it dramatically reduces the cost of the accessory. The state of the art currently is to use liquid chromatograph mass spectrometry (LCMS) to measure vitamin D. A nanoparticle-based optical contrast assay is a major advancement. The research program is structured to address the scientific and engineering challenges with the development of the NutriPhone in parallel with the equally important consumer uptake and business model development challenges. This is done through a series of user trials that will be conducted throughout the program at Cornell and extensive product development support, market research, consumer focus groups, and business model development support provided by the industrial partner, Amway. The most transformative aspect of this type of technology is that it will enable quantitative diagnostics to be deployed directly to the consumer rather than through an intermediary. Amway represents a particularly appealing industrial partner to enable this as they have extremely broad experience in direct-to-consumer marketing and sales.
At the inception of the project, the partners are the lead institution, Cornell University, and a large company, Amway (Ada, MI).
