Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI) secondary faculty Linda Larson-Prior, Ph.D., is a co-investigator on a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded effort to develop advanced, inexpensive devices to detect toxins in water and people.
Dr. Larson-Prior’s primary appointments are in the College of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Department of Neurobiology and Developmental Sciences.
UAMS’ $908,952 portion of the four-year, $6 million project involves testing a novel way to detect toxins in humans, and is led by Shuk-Mei Ho, Ph.D., vice chancellor for Research and Innovation.
The multidisciplinary project team also includes researchers from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana State University Shreveport, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Boise State University in Idaho, and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB).
Titled, “Facilitating Ubiquitous Technology Utilizing Resilient Eco-friendly Sensors (FUTURE Sensors),” the project is funded through the NSF Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), a federal-state partnership program that aims to enhance research competitiveness of targeted states and other jurisdictions.
A major goal of the project is to harness emerging technologies to develop an affordable new generation of tests for heavy metal toxins in people and to significantly increase the frequency of monitoring for toxins that leach into surface and ground water.
The project aims to develop printable sensors to measure toxic chemicals in surface and drinking water for widespread environmental surveillance. These sensors will also measure levels of environmentally-produced toxins in at-risk human populations and for individual use.