Stanford Radio

The Future of Everything with Russ Altman: E123 | Manu Prakash: How to beat a pandemic on a budget A prolific inventor of low-cost, high-impact healthcare devices recently set his sights on COVID-19. Manu Prakash was in France when COVID-19 took hold throughout the world. There, the Stanford bioengineer, famous for “frugal science” like his $1 field microscope made of paper, witnessed the challenges a relatively well-resourced nation experienced holding back the disease. His head was soon filled with visions of the nightmare awaiting developing nations, given that a COVID-19 test in developing countries can cost as much as $400. In a flurry, Prakash jotted down an engineering manifesto of sorts for a worldwide revolution in open-source, inexpensive healthcare solutions. As he saw it, here were three areas of greatest need — diagnostics, protective equipment and critical care. From his lab at Stanford, Prakash, his students and partners in academia, industry and government around the world led a frenzy of