Kevin Arias, predoctoral researcher at the CIBBIM-Nanomedicine group. Diagnostic Nanotools from the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), has won one of the four awards for the best oral presentation at the X Doctoral Workshop of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), as well as the award for the best poster, for its research work https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0956566319310048 "Quantitative diagnosis of malaria by a single-step magneto-immunoassay and a one-piece paper microfluidic device".Malaria is curable when diagnosed in time but nevertheless caused 409,000 deaths worldwide in 2019. The most vulnerable population lives in remote regions with limited health care, and where current rapid diagnostic tests are not efficient enough to replace the more complex and sophisticated classic laboratory diagnostic methods.The new device designed by the group to which Kevin Arias belongs, who enjoys an INPhINIT doctoral fellowship from the "La Caixa" Foundation, detects a protein biomarker of malaria, the lactate dehydrogenase from Plasmodium falciparum (Pf-LDH). In this system, detection is based on a single-step magneto-immunoassay consisting of a single 5-minute incubation of the sample with a reagent cocktail. The rest of the test is carried out automatically, with minimal user intervention, using a single-use paper microfluidic device. For detection, the signal generated by an enzyme amplifier is measured quantitatively, which has been done by exploring in parallel 3 different strategies: visual detection, colorimetric detection using the camera of a mobile phone and a free program for analysis imaging, and fluorescent detection using a low-cost custom, portable, and sensitive fluorescence detector."This would be a simpler and more immediate diagnostic device than classical diagnostic techniques, which would generate results in 20 minutes with a level of manipulation similar to current rapid tests, but more accurately and quantitatively, which would make it possible to detect and stop cases of malaria in these remote places", explains Kevin Arias.The research has been led by the VHIR Diagnostic Nanotools group, headed by Dr. Eva Baldrich, together with the Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Services of the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital, and the Department of Electronic and Biomedical Engineering of the University of Barcelona (UB).The X Doctoral Workshop, organized by the doctoral program in Chemistry and the Department of Chemistry of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), has had 34 oral presentations of the research works, which have taken place in person in the auditorium of the Faculty of Sciences of the UAB, although the presentations and the exhibition of posters have been carried out telematically. The event has been coordinated by Professor Gregorio Ujaque, and this year has had plenary lectures from the experts Joost N. H. Reek, Silvia Cerezo and María Escudero.