Hey readers! Welcome to my blog for 2016-2017 AP Research!
Since August of 2015, I have had the pleasure of interning for Dr. Nicole Herbots, Professor Emerita in Physics at Arizona State University. When I entered the research group, we were analyzing implantable glucose sensors with Ion Beam Analysis -- shooting ions at them in a particle accelerator to find out what's in it. The goal of these experiments was to characterize the percolation (seeping through) of blood (essentially saline water) into these sensors, which corrupts their internal electronics.
However, around the time of the huge Theranos controversy about blood tests using small drops (microliters) of blood, we realized that we stumbled upon something much bigger. The sensors were simply blood on a substrate, and the same mechanism could be used to analyze blood drops to determine composition. The power of our method was that a uniform film of analyzable blood could be created from only microliters of blood. After rigorous testing using various spectrometric techniques and far too many failed naming attempts, HemaDrop, our method for applying blood to a substrate, was born!
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| Even Snoop agrees HemaDrop is really cool (or hot?). |
Our initial results have been presented in the 2016 Materials Research Society (MRS) Spring Meeting, published in the MRS Advances (you can read the full manuscript here), and submitted for a patent.
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| Yep, that's me at the MRS Meeting with my poster. |
However, much, much, much more R&D must be done on HemaDrop before our method for microliter blood analysis can help patients. Therefore, I will be continuing my research on HemaDrop for my topic this year.
Since I have finalized my topic, rather than discuss refining my topic, I will discuss the direction I currently foresee the start of my research project taking.
I'll start by listing 5 important qualities required for microliter blood analysis specifically in the context of HemaDrop:
1. Homogeneity: Since HemaDrop creates a solid film of blood from a droplet and a spot on the film is analyzed, the application method must create a film that has uniform qualities. Any spot on the film should yield the same results when analyzed. One optical quality that clearly shows lack of uniformity is phase separation of a blood film, often seen with one part of the film being clear like the blood's serum and another a reddish purple color like red blood cells.
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| Look at how uniform those left drops are! This picture is from an experiment done last Friday. |
2. Solid: Liquids cannot be analyzed in a vacuum (low pressure), so our film's solid state allows it to be flexible and capable of being used with a variety of analytical techniques from spectrometry to microscopy (more on this later).
3. Thin: The film must be extremely thin, so that the surface analyzed is not different from the inside layers of the film, since some techniques only analyze the surface (a few microns deep) of films.
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| A solid Spongebob reference. |
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| We only judge blood films... |
4. Cooling Time: Additionally, preparation of time for the samples is crucial ultimately for commercial use and implementation in the biomedical industry. Less time is better, and the properties of the substrate along with surrounding conditions must be investigated and tested to minimize drying time.
5. Conductivity: Although slightly less intuitive (more shocking?) than the other qualities, conductivity is crucial, as how well a sample conducts electricity affects the precision of results and the film's ability to be analyzed by certain methods.
My plan is to start with a literature review about all of the aforementioned qualities to establish their importance and investigate potential ways ultimately to improve HemaDrop.
I'll leave everyone with an interesting problem I also aim to look into next-- our tests so far have used canine blood with Sodium Heparin (an anti-clotting agent) to maintain blood's natural viscosity. However, samples directly from humans will coagulate on substrates without Heparin. We want blood to clot in our bodies to stop bleeding when we get cut, but not on our samples so blood can be analyzable. So, I guess my small (?) task is to circumvent the body's own clotting mechanism to ensure accurate results.
See you next week for more fun, tangentially related gifs, and maybe a discussion on analysis techniques!
Cheers,
Yash
(717)
5. Conductivity: Although slightly less intuitive (more shocking?) than the other qualities, conductivity is crucial, as how well a sample conducts electricity affects the precision of results and the film's ability to be analyzed by certain methods.
My plan is to start with a literature review about all of the aforementioned qualities to establish their importance and investigate potential ways ultimately to improve HemaDrop.
I'll leave everyone with an interesting problem I also aim to look into next-- our tests so far have used canine blood with Sodium Heparin (an anti-clotting agent) to maintain blood's natural viscosity. However, samples directly from humans will coagulate on substrates without Heparin. We want blood to clot in our bodies to stop bleeding when we get cut, but not on our samples so blood can be analyzable. So, I guess my small (?) task is to circumvent the body's own clotting mechanism to ensure accurate results.
See you next week for more fun, tangentially related gifs, and maybe a discussion on analysis techniques!
Cheers,
Yash
(717)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI tried to post a Harambe meme, but I am too much of a n00b to figure out how to actually do it...
ReplyDeleteMrs. Haag,
DeleteRIP... you'll learn soon enough.
Actual comment: Is it a small task for you to circumvent the body's clotting mechanism? It sounds like a pretty monumental task.
ReplyDeleteAlso, how similar are canine blood and human blood? Clearly, I am ignorant when it comes to biology, and I just don't know how/if blood is structurally different across different species. As in, can findings with canine blood be applied to humans?
Finally, I'm glad that you have a research topic -- you're basically all set up. However, I do want you to think about whether or not this research will sustain your interest, especially considering that this is research you've already worked on.
Mrs. Haag,
DeleteYes, I failed at sarcasm there... I have access to some previous research which outlines the clotting mechanism (a "cascade reaction"). With the information I already have, I will potentially have to find a way to add something to the substrate that will not interfere with measurements but clot the blood. We only have to stop clotting once the blood has left the body. Right now (this week), my goal is to understand the clotting mechanism before I can hypothesize how to fix it.
Yes, regarding canine vs. human blood, the composition is in fact different. However, it is only different in the elements present, which should not affect the analyzability of the sample. The reason we started with canine blood is that we only need Biosafety Level II approval for animals. However, using a lancet like diabetics do does not require any additionall approval, so our next step is to prick ourselves to test.
Finally, I am confident that this topic will maintain my interest and passion because over the past year I have truly grown to love it and there is a lot of work to be done.
Thanks for asking these great questions!
Hey Yash, excellent read, and nice Snoop gif! It seems like you already know exactly what you want to head towards doing, so I'll bring up comments on strictly what you outlined above. Firstly, I, and I'm going to assume many others, are not fully knowledgeable in all the processes and terms that you mentioned above. I think it would be really useful if you could define some of these terms in a more layman way so that I and other readers of your blog can grasp a deeper understanding of exactly what you will research. I would like to suggest just double checking with yourself to make sure that this is the final topic, since you already have done so much work on it and this class presents an opportunity for you to do something different, maybe in the chess category that you mentioned in class.
ReplyDeleteOne question that I had after reading this is: What exactly is the benefit for patients when this technology is fully implemented. Obviously I understand the basics of how exactly this will benefit individuals, but it would be great to learn exactly what purposes this technology would serve were it to be fully implemented!
One last thing, and the answer might be fairly simple, as I am not fully informed in the research. Will you be able to have results by when this paper is due? I don't know how hard this problem is to solve, so I don't know exactly how long it might take and how you might go about setting a question or writing the final paper.
Other than that, nice intro to your topic and great job keeping it entertaining, as I know how much it must suck to read one that isn't entertaining (slight shade at myself).
I think Amaan makes a great point, that in order to demonstrate the significance and importance of your research, you may want to articulate the real-world applications of said research.
DeleteAmaan,
DeleteThanks for these amazing questions and feedback! I am confident I will remain passionate about this topic due to its potential benefits as a commercial product and the large amount of work still left to do. On that subject, yes, I realized that I forgot to talk about why microliter blood analysis is so beneficial and great... I will definitely address this next week!
Hi Yash,
ReplyDeleteYou did an excellent job of providing an in-depth analysis of the properties of blood that HemaDrop has to maintain. I never knew that the homogeneity of a blood sample would change its color, so that was really cool to read (and see in your image). The fact that you did include images from working with your research group was also interesting to see, and I would recommend doing more of that in future posts.
I would agree that the purpose of HemaDrop is not clear. And also a clearer distinction of why HemaDrop is a better idea/more successful than the Theranos idea would be helpful, because to me, someone who knows little about this area, I did not really understand the difference. But I do know that was a big deal and kind of changed the entire blood testing business for everyone.
Also, you seem already set up with a particular question, so I would just be cautious to make sure that you will not ultimately get bored of doing research on a topic you already know so much about. I would say maybe try to include a small part that was not discussed at the Materials Science Fair/with your advisor, or try to provide a different perspective approaching the topic? Just something that will breathe new life to a research project I know you have been working on for a long time.
The Snoop Dogg gif was the best? Mesmerizing even. I spent a lot of my time looking at that if I am being honest.
Sunskruthi, you are straight fire. That last line? hahaha
DeleteThanks for the feedback Sunskruthi! Yeah I will definitely address the benefits of microliter blood analysis as a whole and then specifically compare our technology with Theranos and others. This will be the bulk of my post next week, and the Theranos story is always an interesting one to share!
Delete