Back in Boston
We’re excited to be back in Boston and getting to work in the lab. This week we determined what our device focus will be: a renal and kidney function test that will help diagnose severe cases of pre-eclampsia. Currently, sophisticated testing for liver and kidney function – specifically blood tests – is expensive and widely unavailable in Zanzibar. We still have a lot of research to do to gain an understanding of the existing technology, but we already have some thoughts on what we’ll need to keep in mind when designing our device.
First we’ll have to decide whether we would like to develop a urine test or a blood test. The main advantage of a blood test is that it can detect many biomarkers and important enzymes that simply aren’t represented in the urine. However, existing blood tests are costly, and the results often take hours to develop, so the patient most likely won’t get their results until the next day. We would like to focus on a point of care test that could give the patient their results hopefully within minutes, not hours or days. Two of the technologies we’ll be investigating in the coming week are microfluidic and lateral flow test strips. Paper-based microfluidic devices consist of hydrophilic paper channels defined by patterns of hydrophobic barriers or cuts. This directs fluid flow toward detection zones, which perform operations on the liquid and can display results. Chemically treated test strips offer a good solution for simple medical devices in developing countries because by design they are usually portable and cost efficient.
