Problem Background

The medical condition known as sepsis is a widespread and deadly condition, that threatens the lives of patients when the body's response to an infection causes injury to its own tissue and organs (Sepsis Alliance, 2018). 

With approximately 50 million new cases annually and more than 1/5 of these patients losing their lives as a result of the condition (Rudd et. al., 2020), it is thus critical that a system is avaliable to help save as many lives as is possible.

     Industry Partner

References

Ranjan, S., Kwek K. Z., Jureen, R., Fisher, D., & Zhang, Y. (2014). Dld pillar shape
          design forefficient separation of spherical and non-spherical bioparticles.
          Lab on a Chip, 14(21), 4250–4262.

Rudd, K. E., Johnson, S. C., Agesa, K. M., Shackelford, K. A., Tsoi, D., Kievlan, D. R.,
          (2020). Global, regional, and national sepsis incidence and mortality, 1990-
          2017: analysis forthe global burden of disease study. The Lancet, 395(10219),
          200–211.

Sepsis Alliance. (2018). What is sepsis? what it is and what it isn’t. Retrieved 2018-
          12-14, from https://www.sepsis.org/news/what-is-sepsis-what-it-is-and-
          what-it-isnt/

State-of-the-Art

The Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) has been researching methods to identify the sepsis condition quickly and has been successful in developing a microfluidics-based methog of testing. 

However, they wish to further miniaturise the system and automate the current technologies they have, such that a Point-of-Care system for diagnosis can be developed to rapidly detect sepsis without the need for a fully equipped laboratory.

What is SAMSys?

SAMSys is a Point-of-Care diagnostic platform designed to observe and detect anomalies in blood activity to identify if a patient has sepsis. The device utilises microfluidic technology to create a portable, on-site laboratory to conduct rapid testing of sepsis.