Halteres Presents Halteres Associates

In honor of World TB Day 2024, we're re-releasing our three-part series from last year on the status of tuberculosis diagnostics worldwide.

For World TB Day 2024, the World Health Organization updated their new ⁠⁠recommendations⁠⁠ and their ⁠⁠TB sequencing portal⁠⁠. Our guest Morten Ruhwald also wrote this ⁠⁠press release⁠⁠ on behalf of FIND.

These episodes originally premiered on March 3rd, 2023.



In a special 3-part season premiere, Halteres Presents is spotlighting tuberculosis diagnostics worldwide, and where things stand in the field today. In Part Three, Rich Thayer and Mickey Urdea are interviewing Dr. Shibu Vijayan, the Medical Director for Global Health Practice at Qure.ai, a healthtech company that uses artificial intelligence assistance for medical imaging diagnostics. Dr. Vijayan is a senior clinician in Community and Public Health Services with over 25 years of experience in developing, monitoring, and evaluating public health projects, including developing healthcare-related proposals in both private and not-for-profit organizations. He is also an accredited International general Tuberculosis (TB) expert by the TB team hosted by WHO and Stop TB Partnership. Prior to Qure.ai, Dr. Vijayan was at PATH and has also worked with the WHO as Technical Consultant for the TB Control Program in India and was associated with Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF, Netherlands) as a field Epidemiologist in Ethiopia.

In honor of World TB Day 2024, we're re-releasing our three-part series from last year on the status of tuberculosis diagnostics worldwide.

For World TB Day 2024, the World Health Organization updated their new ⁠recommendations⁠ and their ⁠TB sequencing portal⁠. Our guest Morten Ruhwald also wrote this ⁠press release⁠ on behalf of FIND.

These episodes originally premiered on March 3rd, 2023.



n a special 3-part season premiere, Halteres Presents is spotlighting tuberculosis diagnostics worldwide, and where things stand in the field today. In Part Two, Rich Thayer and Mickey Urdea are interviewing Dr. Peter Small, the Chief Medical Officer at Hyfe.ai, an acoustic epidemiology company which uses machine learning to build acoustic tools for respiratory diagnostics and monitoring. For more than a decade, Dr. Small was responsible for building and running the innovative TB program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, performing seminal work on clinical, epidemiologic, evolutionary, and genetic aspects of tuberculosis. He has deep expertise in translating cutting-edge science into drugs, diagnostic methods, and vaccines, as well as the business and public health processes to get innovative tools to those in need. Dr. Small holds a BA from Princeton University and a MD from the University of Florida, and he is also the Founding Director of the Stony Brook University Global Health Institute.

In honor of World TB Day 2024, we're re-releasing our three-part series from last year on the status of tuberculosis diagnostics worldwide.

For World TB Day 2024, the World Health Organization updated their new ⁠⁠recommendations⁠⁠ and their ⁠⁠TB sequencing portal⁠⁠. Our guest Morten Ruhwald also wrote this ⁠⁠press release⁠⁠ on behalf of FIND.

These episodes originally premiered on March 3rd, 2023.



In a special 3-part season premiere, Halteres Presents is spotlighting tuberculosis diagnostics worldwide, and where things stand in the field today. In Part One, Rich Thayer and Mickey Urdea are interviewing Dr. Morten Ruhwald, who leads the TB Programme at FIND in Geneva, Switzerland. He trained as a medical doctor at Copenhagen University Hospitals, Denmark and obtained his PhD in TB Immunology at Copenhagen University. Prior to joining FIND, Morten served as CMO and Head of Human Immunology at Statens Serum Institute of Denmark, overseeing the clinical development of the TB and chlamydia vaccine programs. Morten's research interests include molecular and immunoassay development for TB and TBI diagnostics, non-sputum-based diagnostic approaches, biomarkers, digital tools, and personalized medicine in TB.

FIND Tuberculosis Programme: https://www.finddx.org/what-we-do/programmes/tuberculosis/

In Part Two of the Season 2 Finale of "Halteres Presents", Rich Thayer and Mickey Urdea continue their discussion with Paul Davis, dissecting the potential improvements to be made to today's lateral flow technologies, the possibilities (and realities) of what is yet to come with LFAs, and the best ways to build a team of inventors out of disparate personalities. Paul paints a detailed portrait of what "imagineering" can do to expand the scope and capabilities of lateral flow technologies, based on his trailblazing experiences in the field. Please enjoy Part Two of our interview with Paul Davis.



Paul Davis has worked in immunology for over 45 years and has founded or co-founded eight bioscience businesses since 2002, with Mologic being the most prominent. As Mologic’s chief scientific officer, Paul led the Centre for Advanced Rapid Diagnostics (CARD), funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Until 2002, he was as a senior scientist at Unilever Research leading applied immunology, and is one of the inventors of the lateral flow immunoassay.

In Part One of the Season 2 Finale of "Halteres Presents", Rich Thayer and Mickey Urdea are interviewing Paul Davis, PhD, on the founding of the consumer diagnostics industry. In celebration of his upcoming retirement, Paul Davis reflects on his involvement in the development of Clearblue, the first one-step home pregnancy test, among many other accomplishments while at Unilever, as well as his next adventures as an entrepreneur, founding multiple life sciences companies, including Mologic with his son Mark. Paul shares much of what he learned along the way, including the challenges for creating tests for untrained users, and how opinions on rapid testing technologies have changed over time.

On Part Two, Paul will further elucidate the technology behind lateral flow assays - what works, what doesn't work, and where the field is going. Enjoy Part One, and stay tuned for Part Two.

Paul Davis has worked in immunology for over 45 years and has founded or co-founded eight bioscience businesses since 2002, with Mologic being the most prominent. As Mologic’s chief scientific officer, Paul led the Centre for Advanced Rapid Diagnostics (CARD), funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Until 2002, he was as a senior scientist at Unilever Research leading applied immunology, and is one of the inventors of the lateral flow immunoassay.

On this week's episode, Rich Thayer and Mickey Urdea are exploring metagenomics with Dr. Rick Nolte, an engaging expert on the subject. Dr. Nolte helps to define what metagenomics is, its diagnostic uses, its advantages, and where the field is going. This is a delightfully in-depth interview about a complicated but important topic that is very much worth your time; please enjoy.

Frederick (Rick) S. Nolte, PhD, is currently a Senior Director/Medical Advisor at Karius, the microbial cell free DNA company, and Professor Emeritus of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina. He served as Vice-Chair for Laboratory Medicine/Medical Director of Clinical Laboratories and Molecular Pathology. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Medical Microbiology and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. Dr. Nolte completed his B.S. degree in Biology at the University of Cincinnati, and his Ph.D. in Medical Microbiology at the Ohio State University. Dr. Nolte completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Public Health and Medical Laboratory Microbiology at the University of Rochester. Prior to coming to MUSC in 2007, he spent 18 years at Emory University School of Medicine where he was a Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Director of the Clinical Microbiology, Molecular Diagnostic, and Serology Laboratories at Emory Medical Laboratories. He is active in and held positions of responsibility in the American Society for Microbiology, Association for Molecular Pathology, Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute, Infectious Diseases Society of America, American Society for Clinical Pathology, College of American Pathology and American Association for Clinical Chemistry. He has authored numerous book chapters, practice guidelines, and peer-reviewed publications in the areas of clinical microbiology and molecular diagnostics.