Maristela Martins de Camargo
- @mmcamar
- | she/her
The WILDLABS AWARDS 2025 will enable our team - formed of the University of São Paulo (@mmcamar https://br.linkedin.com/in/maristela-martins-de-de-camargo-7bb9b75, @swab_biosampler, https://sites.usp.br/swab/), the Yale University (@dzimmerman https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawnzimmerman1) and Eigen Strategies (@DeepakSathyanarayan https://www.eigenstrategies.com/, https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepaksathyanarayan) - to advance conservation efforts by transforming our manual saliva collector prototype into a fully autonomous sample collector, significantly enhancing wildlife health monitoring.
We aim to develop a device that autonomously collects salivary samples triggered by an approaching animal. The device will expose a fresh collection pad, capture video footage of animal interaction, detect saliva deposition, and store the licked cassette in an environment-safe compartment until retrieval, ensuring durability and safety even under rough handling by large carnivores.
By generating large, serial datasets, our device will support dynamic models for more accurate predictions of wildlife health outcomes, addressing urgent conservation challenges.
29 May 2025 7:53pm
So this will have some cool robotic mechanical parts then? Sounds very interesting.
13 June 2025 2:06pm
This is exciting! Silly question, but how do you compel animals to engage with the device to the extent that they actually lick the collection pad? I'm imagining peanut butter isn't part of your technology stack.
19 June 2025 6:28pm
I eagerly await further information about the progress of this type of technology and its availability. I am a wildlife veterinarian with experience in handling and capturing wild carnivores, and this type of device would certainly facilitate epidemiological monitoring of elusive and logistically difficult-to-handle wildlife species. Greetings from Chile!
16 July 2026 6:57pm
UPDATE on Automatization of a Contact-Free Saliva Sampler for Wildlife Conservation
Hi everyone,
Quick update on our project one year after granted a WILDLABS Award 2025.
We were not able to create yet a version of the autonomous sampler that is safe enough to be tested with animals. Design of the protective case also proved challenging - a ready made steel box did not survive a curious bear and a regular trap camera security box did not survive a curious lion. Smells are big motivators!
We got plenty of saliva from them thou using our manual collector (which is coming out on eLife but can already be downloaded here: https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.02.11.705368)
We have been collecting saliva samples using the manual collector with coatis, marmosets, opossums and smaller mammals without need of a protective case.
Hopefully this is useful to some of you.
Maristela (on behalf of the team)
P.S.: Keep an eye on our progress and reach out if you want to collaborate!
@swab_biosampler
https://sites.usp.br/swab/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/maristela-martins-de-de-camargo-7bb9b75/
Kim Hendrikse