A new portable device developed by researchers from the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) and KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) could be a game-changer for infant healthcare. Called BLIPI (Biophysical Immune Profiling for Infants), this small device uses just a single drop of blood to analyze a newborn’s immune response in real time.
Premature babies are especially vulnerable to serious conditions like sepsis or necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), which can progress quickly and are difficult to detect early. Traditional testing methods require larger blood samples and long lab times, both of which pose challenges for fragile newborns. BLIPI, by contrast, delivers reliable results within 15 minutes and only needs 0.05 ml of blood.
The device uses microfluidic technology to observe how immune cells react to infections by assessing their size and flexibility, giving doctors quick insights into the body’s actual immune response. This means care teams can act sooner, potentially saving lives through faster, more targeted treatment.
In an early study with 19 infants, BLIPI successfully identified immune changes in newborns, even detecting signs of infection before symptoms became severe. Because it’s portable, fast, and minimally invasive, BLIPI is a promising tool not only for hospitals, but also for rural or lower-resource settings.
As research continues, the team behind BLIPI hopes to make the device widely available in hospitals around the world, giving healthcare providers a new way to protect some of the most vulnerable patients, right from the very start of life.
Article written by Mirage News team
14/06/2025
Source:
Mirage News
https://www.miragenews.com/pioneering-device-maps-newborns-immune-function-1478006/