George Tushingham

About

I joined the University of Kent in 2015 on an integrated MSc Forensics degree, graduating with a first-class in July 2019. During this time, I worked closely with a multidisciplinary Chemistry based research group, Interfacial Technologies Research group in Microfluidic separation. I have now continued to work with then during my PhD. The PhD focuses on the development of a Portable Diagnostic Platform for Rapid Detection and Integrated Surveillance of Viruses. This is aimed towards a major issue in Brazil with monitoring disease spread in poultry farms, the current process taking such a long time its nearly irrelevant. The objective behind this initiative is to create and optimise the tools for monitoring the wellbeing of chickens, rapidly detecting a wide array of common viruses that can spread across the flock, therefore allowing the immediate quarantine of infected birds. To do this, research into the enhancement and application of microfluidic devices for use in separation, capture, amplification and detection of targeted viral cells to give simple outputs for positive or negative detection tests. The emphasis on this project is on cost reduction, time reduction and ease of use in situ.

Supervision

Dr Robert Barker, School of Physical Sciences.