Our Programs

Schistosomiasis, known locally in southwestern Nigeria as Àtọ̀sí Ajá, is caused by a parasitic worm that lives in fresh water. A reservoir for the disease exists in several species of freshwater snail, which become infected when contaminated urine from human hosts finds its way to local waterways. Inside the snail, the parasites mature and are eventually released as cercariae. Now in the water, the cercariae burrow into the skin of anyone who wades, washes, or swims in it. The disease infects tens of millions of people across rural sub-Saharan Africa, and it hits school-aged children hardest. Left untreated for years, a curable infection turned chronic can lead to bladder cancer, infertility, and lasting damage to the reproductive tract that makes HIV easier to contract.

SCOPE works on three fronts: diagnosis, ecology, and education.

For diagnosis, we built a pocket-sized toolkit designed around the three things that keep people from being tested: how long it takes, what it costs, and whether it can travel. It pairs a $2 paper microscope known as the Foldscope with the SchistoFilter, a reusable water filter we designed ourselves. We've put it in the hands of Community Health Extension Workers, the local health workers already controlling schistosomiasis on the ground in rural communities.

For ecology, we map riverfront snail habitats by drone and are working toward environmentally responsible ways to control the freshwater snails that carry the parasite.

For education, we build games that teach children how infection happens and how to avoid it.

One Health is the philosophy that human, animal, and environmental health are inextricably linked. Schistosomiasis is a textbook One Health problem: treating the people who are infected is essential, but unless we address what drives transmission, the same people will be infected again next year.

Cervical cancer is one of the most preventable cancers there is: a simple screening can catch it early, when it's almost always treatable. Yet it still kills women who can't get that screening — and the danger is far greater for women living with HIV, who face a dramatically higher risk. Most cervical cancer is caused by HPV, a very common virus that a basic test can detect.

We're building low-cost screening that works without a full hospital lab, starting with a program for women living with HIV in Eswatini. Two tools are in development: an AI system that can flag high-risk samples without a specialist on site, and a simple molecular test for HPV — the virus behind most cervical cancer — that doesn't need sophisticated equipment.

Not every seizure looks like a seizure. Some of the most dangerous ones often happen with no outward convulsions at all — invisible unless someone runs an EEG, a painless test that reads the brain's electrical activity. In a busy, under-resourced emergency room with no brain specialist on call, these hidden seizures get missed — and missing them can cost a life.

We're working on two fronts. First, we're piloting a portable, easy-to-use EEG device (Ceribell) in the LBJ Hospital emergency room, so any clinician — not just a specialist — can catch a hidden seizure fast. Second, through NeuroBridge Colombia, we've partnered with Texas A&M's EnMed program to put Spanish-language seizure-recognition training directly in the hands of rural Colombian primary-care doctors.