Grant: Collaborative Health Research Projects

Blood is the most useful sample fluid for lab medicine and diagnostics. It is most oftenobtained by inserting a needle in a vein in the arm (venipuncture). In the US, over 2 billionvenipunctures are performed annually and is a technique that requires skilled personnel.Venipuncture is often associated with pain, discomfort and bruising, and is most difficult inpersons with small, fragile, or ""deep"" veins (e.g. obesity), in babies, and when repeatedsampling is needed. We propose an alternative that will minimize discomfort and bruising, willnot require highly skilled personnel, and will be safe and easy.Our project combines an array of tiny needles (microneedles) that can be placed as a ""patch""on the surface of the skin to collect small amounts of blood. The microneedles cause littlediscomfort, have a very low risk of causing bruising, and can be applied by the patient or anon-medical person. As the blood is collected, it will flow into a ""lab-on-a-chip-on-a-phone""device, where the blood tests will automatically be performed using new and highly sensitivefluorescent probes. These tests will include immunoassays for protein biomarkers associatedwith cardiovascular disease, partially in collaboration with our industry partner, as well asassays of the activities of blood coagulation factors. Results from this platform can beimmediately and electronically sent to the patient and physician.This research builds on successful preliminary applications with the microneedle arrays andfluorescent probes separately. We will now further develop and combine these innovativemethods for a much-needed medical use, make comparisons to the standard venipunctureapproach, and ultimately plan to perform many tests simultaneously with the devices. Thebenefits over current methods will be substantial: a painless, safe and user-friendly way todraw and test blood, with rapid reporting of results to health professionals and patients.