Keynote Speaker 6: Dr Jenny Molloy
Keynote Speaker 6: Dr Jenny Molloy - Open source technologies for molecular diagnostics in the global South
Access to diagnostics and biosensing technologies has long been a challenge in low and middle income countries. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted challenges in designing useful technologies for molecular diagnostics in resource limited settings and also the importance of expanding manufacturing capabilities for reagents, sensors and devices. This talk will draw on examples from the explosion of innovation in molecular diagnostics in the last two years to explore effective engineering approaches to sensor technologies for molecular diagnostics in the global South, mechanisms to increase and accelerate access through open source sharing and ways to engage with policy, regulation and global partners to increase opportunities for technologies to generate positive impacts within health systems.
Jenny Molloy |  |
Jenny is the Founder and Director of the Open Bioeconomy Lab. She is also a Shuttleworth Foundation Research Fellow in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at the University of Cambridge, studying the role and impact of open approaches to Intellectual Property for a Sustainable and Equitable Bioeconomy. Her work focuses on better understanding problems facing researchers accessing biological research tools in low-resource contexts, particularly Latin America and Africa. Jenny has been analyzing existing innovative solutions and the potential for local, distributed manufacturing of enzymes to improve access and build capacity for biological research. The broader aim of her research is to contextualize “open source” approaches to biotechnology within current narratives of innovation and the bioeconomy policy agenda.