Abstract

Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is a genetic condition which affects the hemoglobin of red blood cells (RBCs)4 and has high precedence in low income, rural communities. Current treatments include medications, blood transfusions, and sometimes bone-marrow transplants, but there are still no cures for the disease. The aim of this project was to develop an inexpensive, accurate, and time efficient method to detect and quantify the amount of sickled hemoglobin in a blood sample. The method for achieving these tasks was accomplished utilizing the electrochemical technique of cyclic voltammetry to differentiate the unique redox potentials of wild-type and sickled hemoglobin. Our design was based upon a miniature potentiostat featuring the LMP91000 potentiostat chip and SAMD21 microcontroller, which read potentials from a tri-electrode printed circuit board (PCB) setup. 

Project Summary 

With consideration of the needs of sickle cell disease patients in low income areas, we have developed a time efficient, inexpensive, and accurate method for quantitatively diagnosing sickle cell disease that could be used to provide diagnoses, and therefore potentially life saving treatment to thousands worldwide. 

• Current gold standard testing takes days to perform and expensive laboratory equipment. 

• Our device could quickly and accurately measure the level of blood cells affected by sickling, giving an idea of disease severity that can be helpful for medical professionals. 

  • At our current stage in development, we are testing a prototype of this device for its accuracy at measuring levels of sickled hemoglobin in blood. 

  • This device uses an electrochemical technique called cyclic voltammetry (CV) which is used to measure the redox reactions of hemoglobin. 

    • This technique runs a voltage sweep which induces reduction and oxidation in the solution species, which is measured by the current outputted by the electrodes.

• Following the success of our testing, user-friendly casing and software could be developed to improve user interfacing. 

  • Future work on this device can be adapted to be used by healthcare professionals in low-income areas with high prevalence of sickle cell disease to allow patients to be prescribed the life-changing transfusions and prescriptions they need to fight sickle cell disease. 

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Pedro Cabrales, Ph.D. (Principal Investigator) for discovering our project and letting us use the lab and resources for testing.

Thanks to Carlos Munoz, Ph.D. (Project Mentor) for meeting with us and guiding us through the process of our project.

Thanks to Orlando Hoilett, Ph.D. and his research lab for developing the miniature potentiostat (KickStat), and the Arduino code which we used as the controller for our device.

Page Leader: Lorelai Schoch