 | The information on this web site refers to the documentary 'A Single Droplet of Blood' by Director Dominika Švecová. |
About
Treatment
The Story of a Single Droplet of Blood
This is the story of malaria and human attempts to cure it.
Hook: The film will present state of the art technology. It will introduce the mysterious world of nanotechnology, the world of miniature dimensions, which can be seen only under the microscope.
Intro: The film is about highly probable, impending dramatic improvements in diagnostic methods in the testing for malaria.
The film will follow the attempts of scientists to create a small simple, cheap diagnostic device which could be usable everywhere.
The film will reveal on what principle malaria works, how it is tested at the present time and how it will be tested in a very near future. The film will show that the new nanotechnological method of a “lab on the chip” testing should cause a revolution in diagnosing malaria quickly and cheaply. Thus the new diagnostic device should be able to save lives of millions of infected people.
The film will show the extreme human effort and enthusiasm of Glasgow based scientific researchers who are developing this cutting edge solution. But, as with every scientific project, the result is as yet uncertain. We do not know whether the scientists will be successful. The film will demonstrate the scientists´ enthusiasm, creativity and absolute involvement in the project.
Main characters: The parasitology specialist Lisa Ranford-Cartwright and the electronic nano-technology team leader Julien Reboud. Both of them have extremely charismatic personalities. The film will show them and their teams while working, explaining the issues that the film will deal with.
Background and context: First, the film will highlight to the viewer the extreme danger of malaria, a contagious disease which is spread by mosquitoes in hot countries and which kills millions of people, mostly children, by showing how a human being is infected.
This sequence will start with a close-up of a mosquito, landing on a human arm and biting it. The infected patient´s blood will then be taken by doctors and examined in a laboratory. While working in the parasitology laboratory, scientist Lisa Ranford-Cartwright, a top international malaria expert working at Glasgow University, will explain the context: if you are infected by malaria, you need to be diagnosed immediately, because without treatment, you can die in two days. Speed is of the essence, but with little infrastructure in Africa, speed is what is normally lacking.
The film will then show how Glasgow scientists cultivate malaria and keep a colony of deadly mosquitoes in their laboratories. Both malaria and mosquitoes are fed with blood. Two African doctors, Jonathan from Kenya and Joseph from Tanzania, will, while working with blood samples, explain what it means to live in a malaria-ridden country and what it felt to be sick with malaria as a child.
The film will show the traditional methods of malaria testing which are slow and laborious and expensive, hence they are basically unusable in Africa. All this will be explained by Lisa, who is extremely enthusiastic and charismatic about her subject.
But there is a possibility of a new way.
Not very far from Glasgow University´s parasitology department works a team of energetic young scientists: in the electronic nano-technological lab.
Here we enter the mysterious world of nano-technology. Julien Reboud´s research team specialises in manipulating miniature amounts of liquids by sound caustic waves. Different liquids behave differently. Malaria infected blood behaves differently from non-infected blood and that is the important factor which will help the scientist to divide the blood. Julian´s nanotechnological device should thus be able to quickly identify malaria in a blood sample.
We will see how Julians team work on this project - from coming up with new ideas to realising them and making trials.
We see how the scientist is creating pattern for the chip, manufacturing it in the clean room and making trials with blood on it.
Overcoming obstacles during research: In the film, we will see the dynamics of Julian´s scientific team. It will show them discussing what experiments they will undertake. Then, they will all work individually on their experiments, then come back and evaluate their results. I also want to show the nature of working with the nanoworld – scientists work with things which they can only see under microscope. There will be contrast between two worlds - the nano world and the scientific world of the laboratory.
The culmination of the film will be Julien´s team testing his lab on the chip device – to find out whether the proposed diagnostic tool is workable. Julien: "This is only a beginning, but it is very promising."
This is the story of malaria and human attempts to cure it.
Hook: The film will present state of the art technology. It will introduce the mysterious world of nanotechnology, the world of miniature dimensions, which can be seen only under the microscope.
Intro: The film is about highly probable, impending dramatic improvements in diagnostic methods in the testing for malaria.
The film will follow the attempts of scientists to create a small simple, cheap diagnostic device which could be usable everywhere.
The film will reveal on what principle malaria works, how it is tested at the present time and how it will be tested in a very near future. The film will show that the new nanotechnological method of a “lab on the chip” testing should cause a revolution in diagnosing malaria quickly and cheaply. Thus the new diagnostic device should be able to save lives of millions of infected people.
The film will show the extreme human effort and enthusiasm of Glasgow based scientific researchers who are developing this cutting edge solution. But, as with every scientific project, the result is as yet uncertain. We do not know whether the scientists will be successful. The film will demonstrate the scientists´ enthusiasm, creativity and absolute involvement in the project.
Main characters: The parasitology specialist Lisa Ranford-Cartwright and the electronic nano-technology team leader Julien Reboud. Both of them have extremely charismatic personalities. The film will show them and their teams while working, explaining the issues that the film will deal with.
Background and context: First, the film will highlight to the viewer the extreme danger of malaria, a contagious disease which is spread by mosquitoes in hot countries and which kills millions of people, mostly children, by showing how a human being is infected.
This sequence will start with a close-up of a mosquito, landing on a human arm and biting it. The infected patient´s blood will then be taken by doctors and examined in a laboratory. While working in the parasitology laboratory, scientist Lisa Ranford-Cartwright, a top international malaria expert working at Glasgow University, will explain the context: if you are infected by malaria, you need to be diagnosed immediately, because without treatment, you can die in two days. Speed is of the essence, but with little infrastructure in Africa, speed is what is normally lacking.
The film will then show how Glasgow scientists cultivate malaria and keep a colony of deadly mosquitoes in their laboratories. Both malaria and mosquitoes are fed with blood. Two African doctors, Jonathan from Kenya and Joseph from Tanzania, will, while working with blood samples, explain what it means to live in a malaria-ridden country and what it felt to be sick with malaria as a child.
The film will show the traditional methods of malaria testing which are slow and laborious and expensive, hence they are basically unusable in Africa. All this will be explained by Lisa, who is extremely enthusiastic and charismatic about her subject.
But there is a possibility of a new way.
Not very far from Glasgow University´s parasitology department works a team of energetic young scientists: in the electronic nano-technological lab.
Here we enter the mysterious world of nano-technology. Julien Reboud´s research team specialises in manipulating miniature amounts of liquids by sound caustic waves. Different liquids behave differently. Malaria infected blood behaves differently from non-infected blood and that is the important factor which will help the scientist to divide the blood. Julian´s nanotechnological device should thus be able to quickly identify malaria in a blood sample.
We will see how Julians team work on this project - from coming up with new ideas to realising them and making trials.
We see how the scientist is creating pattern for the chip, manufacturing it in the clean room and making trials with blood on it.
Overcoming obstacles during research: In the film, we will see the dynamics of Julian´s scientific team. It will show them discussing what experiments they will undertake. Then, they will all work individually on their experiments, then come back and evaluate their results. I also want to show the nature of working with the nanoworld – scientists work with things which they can only see under microscope. There will be contrast between two worlds - the nano world and the scientific world of the laboratory.
The culmination of the film will be Julien´s team testing his lab on the chip device – to find out whether the proposed diagnostic tool is workable. Julien: "This is only a beginning, but it is very promising."
