Problem area
People who inject drugs (PWID) experience disproportionately high rates of HIV and Hepatitis C (HCV) transmission, particularly through the reuse and sharing of contaminated syringes. While harm reduction programs and sterile syringe distribution remain the gold standard for prevention, many PWID continue to inject in rushed, unsupervised, and low-resource environments due to homelessness, stigma, criminalization, and reduced access to supervised consumption sites. Existing interventions do not adequately address situations where syringe reuse becomes unavoidable. This project will explore whether a low-cost, portable engineering solution can safely inactivate HIV and HCV within reused syringes to reduce transmission risk in real-world harm reduction contexts.
Main objectives
The primary objective is to design and evaluate a portable system capable of reducing HIV and HCV transmission risk through heat-based viral inactivation in reused syringes. Secondary objectives include identifying the technical requirements necessary for effective viral inactivation, ensuring the device is safe and usable in rushed outdoor environments, evaluating compatibility with standard syringes used in harm reduction programs, and developing a prototype that aligns with stakeholder-informed harm reduction principles. The project will also investigate the feasibility, safety, and usability constraints associated with thermal sterilization approaches.
Scope of work
- Conduct literature review on HIV/HCV viral persistence and heat inactivation
- Conduct stakeholder interviews with harm reduction workers, pharmacists, and individuals with lived experience
- Perform environmental scan and competitor/patent analysis
- Define user needs, engineering requirements, and constraints using tools such as QFD
- Develop and evaluate technical concepts
- Build and iterate benchtop prototypes
- Perform thermal characterization and preliminary validation testing Assess usability, safety, and feasibility in simulated low-resource settings Develop recommendations for future regulatory and biosafety pathways
Deliverables
- Prototype
- New protocols/processes
- Survey tools
- Presentation
- Report
Team meeting frequency
TBD
Skills and training required
- Biomedical engineering design skills
- Research and literature review skills
- Stakeholder interviewing and qualitative analysis
- Prototyping and iterative design
- CAD and mechanical design
- Thermal systems analysis
- Experimental design and testing
- Data analysis and technical communication
- Understanding of harm reduction and ethical research practices
- Team collaboration and project management
Resources required
- Benchtop prototyping materials and fabrication tools
- Heating elements, sensors, and thermal insulation materials
- Standard syringes and mock-use testing materials
- Temperature measurement equipment (thermocouples, IR thermometer, data logging)
- CAD and design software (SolidWorks/Fusion 360)
- Access to machine shop or prototyping lab
- Literature databases and academic journals
- Potential access to biosafety guidance or virology consultation for surrogate testing