Hung

The goal of this project is to conceive and develop a blood testing system, scaled down to a chip with MEMS sized components, which would permit an end-user to conveniently monitor his or her white blood cell (WBC) count on a regular basis. This would serve as a diagnostic for a variety of diseases, including leukemia and severe infections. Designed to be cost effective, this type of test could be self-administered at home or on-the-go, by means of a small, disposable microfluidic chip placed into a base-unit for blood chemistry analysis. If adequate funding is acquired, the major product design tasks to be completed in order to demonstrate proof-of-concept would include: • Design of a functional base unit • Disposable chip construction • Reservoirs containing stain and pressurized gas • Obtaining a blood sample of specific volume • Fluid transport and mixing • Sample focusing for optical analysis • Cell imaging using LED and CCD array