December 4, 2012 – A*STAR’s Institute of Microelectronics (IME) and SFC Fluidics will be collaborating to develop a portable diagnostic tool for rapid triaging of traumatic brain injury (TBI) victims. TBI is one of the most common causes of death and disability in the world, usually resulting from blasts, falls, knocks, traffic accidents, and assaults.

The proposed diagnostic tool is a fully integrated, automated biosensor device that requires only a drop of blood to detect up to three biomarkers released by the brain after sustaining injury. The biomarker readings, along with an indicator indicating the severity of the injury, will be displayed on-screen.

Unlike conventional diagnostic tools such as neurological tests and computed tomography (CT) scans, the biosensor device does not require any trained personnel for sample handling. The device is portable, allowing rapid on-site diagnosis of the injury.

"This collaboration exemplifies the extension of ‘More-than-Moore’ technologies to health care. Building on our core capabilities in silicon-based microfluidics and biosensor technology, we can help our partner create innovative diagnostic tools to improve TBI treatment," says Prof. Dim-Lee Kwong, executive director of IME.

"By leveraging IME’s industry standard mass production facilities, we can cut down the product development cycle time," says Dr. Sai Kumar, VP of R&D at SFC Fluidics, a Fayetteville, AK microfluidics-based biomedical device development company.

The Institute of Microelectronics (IME), Singapore, is research institute of the Science and Engineering Research Council of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).