$3.7 million NIH grant supports development of biosensor technology for diagnosing viral diseases For over ten years, Ali Yanik has been working to develop novel biosensor technology to provide rapid, low-cost testing for disease diagnostics and precision medicine. Now, with a five-year, $3.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, he and his collaborators are poised to complete the development and validation of a prototype and begin testing it in the field for detection of dengue fever, yellow fever, and Zika virus infections. "We're confident in being able to do this and get it into the field for testing," said Yanik, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering in the Baskin School of Engineering at UC Santa Cruz. "It's pretty revolutionary because this is a very simple tool, and yet it is also very sensitive."