Faster and Cheaper Tests for Sickle Cell Disease

Within minutes following birth, every child in the United States undergoes a series of tests designed to look for certain conditions, including sickle cell disease--a health issue that affects thousand of children around the world.

Survival can be a particular problem for children with the health issue for children growing up in the developing world. Now, scientists have discovered cheaper tests for to determine the problem and potentially treat the issue sooner.

"The tests we have today work great, they have a very high sensitivity," the researchers noted, in a news release. "But the equipment needed to run them costs in the tens of thousands of dollars, and they take hours to run. That's not amenable to rural clinics, or even some cities where the medical infrastructure isn't up to the standards we see in the U.S. That's where having a rapid, low-cost test becomes important and this paper shows such a test can potentially work."

A Post-Doctoral Fellow in Chemistry and Chemical Biology working in the lab of George Whitesides, the Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor developed a new test for sickle cell disease that provides results in just 12 minutes and costs as little as 50 cents - far faster and cheaper than other tests.
For their research, they examined more than 50 clinical samples and found that the new test showed good sensitivity and speciality for the disease, with promising early evidence. However, additional testing will be needed to determine just how accurate the tests will be.

More information regarding the findings can be seen via the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.