Skip to main content
An official website of the European Union An official EU website
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

Mobile Bio-Lab to support first response in Arbovirus outbreaks

Project description

Mobile technology for vector-borne diseases

Vector-borne diseases (VBD) are infectious diseases that are transmitted to humans and animals through the bites of infected insects, and other arthropods, known as vectors. These diseases are most prevalent in tropical regions, but they are becoming more common in temperate regions, due to factors such as climate change, urbanisation, and global travel. VBDs can cause significant morbidity and mortality, posing a major public health threat worldwide. Funded by the European Innovation Council, the MOBVEC project will introduce a new technology capable of providing real-time information about vector populations, GEOSS compliant vector risk maps, disease VBD transmission models, and epidemiological maps. This technology will help prevent and fight disease outbreaks, saving lives and money.

Objective

The WHO estimates that vector-borne diseases (VBD) account for more than 17% of all infectious diseases. Every year, more than 2.5 billion people are at risk of contracting dengue alone, and VBDs cause almost 1 million deaths.
In the last decades several species of invasive disease carrying mosquitoes have invaded the northern hemisphere of the planet through the transport of goods, increasing international travel and climate change. In 2018 a West Nile fever outbreak transmitted by mosquitoes occurred in the EU. For this disease there are no vaccines or medications. There were 1503 cases reported in 11 countries, and 181 deaths.
VBD Mobile Bio-Labs could have assisted health authorities in containing this outbreak, reducing cases and preventing deaths. Unfortunately such a system does not exist.
MOBVEC will be the first VBD Mobile Bio-Lab, providing:
1- Automatic information about vector populations, obtained in real-time by smart-traps, powered by machine-learning and edge computing: insect species, sex, age, and viral infection.
2- GEOSS compliant vector risk maps of adult insects and eggs/larvae, built on field + Copernicus data;
3- GEOSS compliant disease transmission models in mosquito populations, fusing data from Copernicus, clinical and diagnostic data of reference labs, and vector risk maps;
4- GEOSS compliant citizen-science platform to reinforce the surveillance of mosquitoes using citizens as observation nodes.
5- VBD mobile bio-lab with the capacities of points 1, 2, 3 and 4 + VBD Epidemiological maps and forecast models, to be rapidly operational in the heart of outbreaks to assist first-responders.
This technology will the first line of defence against disease vectors worldwide, help prevent and fight devastating disease outbreaks, and will save lives while saving millions of euros in healthcare and lost working-hours. This has never been done before, and our consortium has the interdisciplinary research capacities to make it a reality.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Coordinator

IRIDEON SL
Net EU contribution
€ 757 500,00
Address
AVENIDA JOSEP TARRADELLAS 38
08029 Barcelona
Spain

See on map

SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Este Cataluña Barcelona
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost
€ 757 500,00

Participants (6)

My booklet 0 0 Item