About C-THAN

C-THAN is one of the five vital partners in the National Institute of Health Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB)’s Point-of-Care Technologies Research Network (POCTRN). The C-THAN focus is to facilitate the development and commercializing a pipeline of point-of-care technologies critical for improved management of HIV/AIDS infected individuals in low- and middle-income countries with specific emphasis on sub-Saharan Africa. We leverage the dynamic and productive collaborations established by Northwestern in Africa over the past 17 years, particularly Nigeria, South Africa, Mali, and Tanzania, to achieve our objectives.

C-THAN incorporates clinical and user needs in the development process while providing expertise and resources to address early barriers to commercialization and implementation. The range of technologies will include tests for detection of infection and monitoring of HIV/AIDS and its common fatal comorbidities including tuberculosis, non-tuberculous mycobacteria, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV-related malignancies. We seek to support projects designed for settings with limited medical infrastructure such as restricted access to electricity, refrigeration and/or central water supply. Relevant technologies that considered for funding include, but are not limited to, in vitro diagnostic assays or technologies, treatment related diagnostic technologies, technologies that can be self-administered for either diagnosis or treatment monitoring, and/or technologies that improve or enable POC test performance. A successful test will be user friendly, require only local training in its operation and maintenance, manufacturable at low cost with low cost consumables, rapid result, durable, contain internal checks of device/assay performance, self-calibration and error diagnosis.

Download the C-THAN Brochure

“Working Together to Develop A Point-of-care Pipeline for HIV/AIDS”