“A private little revolution any woman can easily buy at her drugstore.”
That’s how a 1978 ad described the new-to-market home pregnancy test. Today, that revolution is replayed in millions of American bathrooms every year—so many that it hardly feels revolutionary anymore.

But Catherine Klapperich understands just how powerful it is to have direct access to your medical information. She’s working to make that “little revolution” a lot bigger through simple, portable tests for conditions like HPV, malaria, and chlamydia that patients can use worldwide.

“In a fragmented healthcare system like ours and like many around the world, you have to be your own advocate,” says Klapperich, a College of Engineering professor of biomedical engineering and materials science and engineering, director of the Center for Future Technologies in Cancer Care (CFTCC), and ENG associate dean for research and technology development. “Being the best advocate you can be requires information. Information is power.”