Project Summary/Abstract
Evaluation for neutropenia and/or thrombocytopenia requires a 5-part white blood cell (WBC) differential with
platelet count. Currently, instruments capable of these measurements must be operated in a CLIA-certified
laboratory and rely on complex workflows involving multiple reagents, extensive calibration and maintenance,
and operation by highly trained personnel. Turnaround times of hours or days delay administration of critical
treatments, such as chemotherapy, anti-psychotic medications, and blood transfusions. Cellia Science will
address the need for more rapid blood cell differential tests and develop a device to diagnose neutropenia and
thrombocytopenia suitable for point-of-care or low-resource settings. This device will implement label-free deep
UV imaging combined with microfluidic “blood smear” preparation and cell classification algorithms to perform
blood cell differentials. Cellia’s deep UV images are pseudo-colorized and appear similar to Giemsa-stained
images, the current gold standard for manual differentials. However, because we are directly detecting the
nucleic acids in the cells, our images are inherently quantitative nucleic acid mass maps with subcellular detail
and femtogram sensitivity. In Phase I of this project, we will develop a microfluidic sample cartridge prototype,
verify its ability to form the desired cell monolayers, and evaluate the accuracy and precision of counts
performed using the cartridge with our imaging device prototype. Blood samples will span the clinically relevant
range of hematocrit levels to verify device functionality at varying blood viscosities. Accuracy and precision of
the device will be evaluated with samples from healthy patients as well as from patients with neutropenia and
thrombocytopenia to demonstrate acceptable performance for the target patient population. Successful
development of the microfluidic sample cartridge will demonstrate the feasibility of a scalable, robust sample
cartridge for point-of-care hematology analysis. Combined with our existing prototype imaging device and
analysis algorithms, this will demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed hematology analyzer.