Cornell backs 5 POC tools

Cornell’s PORTENT center has picked five point-of-care diagnostic projects for new backing, aiming to move more testing closer to patients instead of central labs. (news.cornell.edu) Cornell announced the selections on April 10, 2026, and said the projects are part of PORTENT’s third year of awards. The center said point-of-care tests are designed to deliver results at home, in clinics, or in other low-resource settings. (news.cornell.edu) Point-of-care diagnostics are medical tests used near the patient, not in a distant laboratory. Cornell said that matters in places where lab access is limited and treatment decisions have to be made quickly. (news.cornell.edu) PORTENT stands for Point of Care Technologies for Nutrition, Infection and Cancer for Global Health. Cornell launched the center in September 2023 with a five-year National Institutes of Health grant led by David Erickson and Saurabh Mehta. (news.cornell.edu) Cornell said the center funds technology development, clinical validation, deployment and commercialization, which is the work needed to turn a lab prototype into a product doctors can actually use. Its clinical network spans sites in the United States, Uganda, Ecuador and India. (pochealth.cornell.edu, news.cornell.edu) The center said nearly half of the world’s population lacks access to basic diagnostic testing in primary care, citing the 2021 Lancet Diagnostics Commission. Cornell framed the new awards around that gap, especially for poorer and marginalized patients. (news.cornell.edu, news.cornell.edu) Cornell has already used PORTENT support to push earlier projects toward field use. One example, AnemiaPhone, was licensed to the Indian Council of Medical Research and is being used to expand iron-deficiency screening in India. (news.cornell.edu, news.cornell.edu) The new round is also tied to a broader 2026 funding push. PORTENT’s current solicitation, released March 17, offers awards of up to $100,000 per project, with applications due May 1 and an information session held April 14. (pochealth.cornell.edu, news.cornell.edu) In announcing the five selections, Cornell cast the program as a way to get faster diagnostic and decision tools beyond hospitals and major labs. The center’s pitch is simple: bring testing to the patient, not the other way around. (news.cornell.edu, pochealth.cornell.edu)