Smartphone-Based Saliva Test That Can Detect COVID-19 Earns UF Professor Honors in National Contest

A University of Florida professor and his industry collaborators have won second place in a technology competition sponsored by the National Institutes of Health for a smartphone-based, rapid saliva test they developed that can be used to diagnose COVID-19, along with two other diseases of major global importance, malaria and anemia.

A team consisting of Rhoel Dinglasan, Ph.D., a professor of infectious diseases with UF’s College of Veterinary Medicine and director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Southeastern Center of Excellence in Vector Borne Diseases, and two others was one of six winners of the NIH Technology Accelerator Challenge, or NTAC, offered for the first time this year.

Dinglasan’s team will receive $200,000 for their entry in the competition, which offered a total of $1 million in prizes to the winners.

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