 So, how can a box of light help treat infant jaundice? Let's find out on the big idea. 14 million newborns develop infant jaundice each year. Jaundice, a condition characterized by the yellowing of the skin in the sclera of the eye, is caused by an excessive amount of bilirubin in the blood. Bilirubin is the yellow pigment byproduct of the breakdown of red blood cells. When an infant is born early, the baby's liver isn't strong enough to eliminate it, and so it builds up in the blood. In developing countries, just Africa and India alone, over 1,000 babies die every day. And so if we can do any bit to just help that number go down to zero, we want to do that as soon as we can. It's estimated that 7 million babies with infant jaundice don't receive adequate treatment. In 100,000, develop hyper bilirubinemia, where perilously high levels of bilirubin can lead to brain damage. This most commonly occurs in the developing world in places like India, which is where Siva Kumar Palinuswamy, a former graduate engineering student at ASU, first witnessed it. He saw a scenario where there was a stack of naked babies, overall yellow and sweating, and they were being treated for jaundice under one lamp. There was some kind of ceiling with a rope. It was completely disheartening to see that those babies are trying to survive one more day. That day, I took an oath to myself to save these babies in the developing community. Normally, phototherapy using the blue-green spectrum of light rays helps break down the excessive bilirubin so the body can excrete it. But in the developing world, a safe phototherapy option may not be available. The devices that I use to treat jaundice currently are big, bulky, they're expensive, they're about 5 foot tall, and they consume about 100 to 150 watts of electricity. In India, there's a state called Assam. 60% of jaundice deaths happen in that state, and only 20% of that state has full electricity. A new ASU startup called Neolite is determined to change this. They've designed an innovative technology using LED lights and solar power to treat infant jaundice. Using funding from ASU's Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative, they created a prototype utilizing tools at TechShop, an innovative makerspace in nearby Chandler. And they have two types of treatment approaches, one for the developing world and one for the US. We've developed the world's quickest and most efficient device to treat jaundice. Our core technology is the same, but we've been able to gear the features to work for both markets. Skylife is a device that primary is used for treating jaundice in infants who are born in the US. We also have another product line called SunLife, which runs off solar power. So this device can essentially treat jaundice in all the developing countries like Southeast Asia, Africa, India, in those areas where there are power constraints, rural areas where you don't even have a power grid access to electricity. This prototype will soon help gain approval for the device from the government. We should be ready with an FTA clearance by the end of this year. We'd be selling our first device in the market and saving the first baby. To me, it's not a company, it's a collaborative movement that we started to eradicate jaundice. With the help of medical centers in Phoenix and Los Angeles, Neolite is continuing to test the device. But one day soon, this idea might help treat infant jaundice. For The Big Idea, I'm Lauren Reynolds. Follow us on Twitter using the hashtag ASU Big Idea.