Low Cost Blood Low Cost Blood AnalyzerAnalyzerfor Malaria Detectionfor Malaria Detection

Project Advisors: Prof. William Tang, Gelareh EslamianProject Team: Nadia Ahmed, Kevin Cho, Johnway Yih, Anna GraceAdditional Help: Timothy Quang, Robert Diehl, Ling Kong, Transon Nguyen, Kun Qian

BackgroundBackgroundMalaria affects 500 million people a yearThe most common and lethal of four different strains of malaria is Plasmodium Falciparum

www.sciencemag.org on June 1, 2010

PurposePurpose

• Avoid misdiagnosis (which leads to drug resistance)

• Provide cheap and reliable diagnosis

• Keep the device portable

• Create an alternative to slow and expensive microscopy blood analysis

Properly diagnose Malaria in a cheap and effective manner

Project TheoryProject Theory• Malaria targets red blood cells (RBC)

• Infected RBCs become more rigid and form a rough exterior

• Infected RBCs travel slower than non infected RBCs

• Infection can be quantified and measured based on flow speed of RBCs

www.pnas.orgcgidoi10.1073pnas.2433968100

Project DesignProject DesignCreate an optical sensor with a laser diode

and photodiode

Flowing RBCs will interrupt the laser beam

Disruption of the laser beam will be recorded by voltage output of photodiode

Use National Instruments DAQ to record information on a PC

Project DesignProject Design

Project DesignProject Design

DataDataPhotodiode readout of wire (~500 µm) test

DataDataPhotodiode readout of hair (~100 µm)

test

Microfluidic ChannelsMicrofluidic ChannelsShrinky dink mold methodPrint channel layout on

polystyreneOven at 160-170 degrees CelsiusProblems keeping them flatPour PDMS on top of shrinky

dinksAdhere PDMS to glass slides to

create permanent channels

PDMS ChannelPDMS Channel

Continued WorkContinued WorkFocus the laser

beam to the smallest spot size possible

Detect microbeads flowing through a microchannel (~10 µm)

Detect RBCs (~4-8 µm) in mouse blood

Ultimate GoalUltimate GoalReverse engineer common CD ROM drives

Use the internal optical system for our device

Optical sensors will already be sensitive enough

Cheap alternative to constructing our own materials

Thank YouThank You

Project Advisors: Prof. William Tang, Gelareh EslamianProject Team: Nadia Ahmed, Kevin Cho, Johnway Yih, Anna GraceAdditional Help: Timothy Quang, Robert Diehl, Ling Kong, Transon Nguyen, Kun Qian