In recent years, various acute Febrile Illnesses (AFI) have emerged and some are life-threatening. The clinical management of AFI heavily relies on accurate detection of the pathogen, which possibly could be bacteria, virus, fungi or parasites. Upon the outbreak of AFI, it is important for the clinicians to immediately know the causative pathogen so that they could decide and guide proper medications accordingly without delay. Traditional detection systems may take several days to weeks to get a definite conclusion of what the pathogens are. However, genomics or proteomics based assays could tremendously increase the sensitivity, specificity and efficiency of the detection process. Please use the knowledge we learned in Genomic and Proteomic Engineering to propose a strategy to conquer this clinical challenge. You could focus on the detection of the pathogen or the host response. Please use the following format to prepare your project:
1. Significance (20%), select an AFI for your topic and explain why this research is important, including background knowledge;
2. Specific aims (20%), explain what goals you are attempting to achieve;
3. Research design (60%), explain how you are going to do it. The following 3 sections (20% each) must be included.