Washington University School of Medicine collaborators, nephrologist Ying Maggie Chen, MD, PhD, and bio-engineer Srikanth Singamaneni, PhD, have received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant (R21), awarded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). The R21 grant program encourages exploratory/developmental research by providing support for the early and conceptual stages of project development.
Dr. Chen, Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Nephrology, and Dr. Singamaneni, Lilyan & E. Lisle Hughes Professor, WashU McKelvey School of Engineering, will use the funding to continue the development of an innovative, minimally invasive bio-diagnostic device to replace painful blood collection techniques used to monitor pediatric patients with nephrotic syndrome.
Their research uses a newly invented ultrabright plasmonic-fluor-enabled microneedle technology as an ultrasensitive and minimally invasive diagnostic tool that taps the dermal interstitial fluid for rapid sampling and quantification of blood urea nitrogen and creatinine in pediatric patients.
Successful development of this micro-needle technology could lead to a paradigm shift in newborn and pediatric diagnostics in both point-of-care and at-home settings.
Please follow this link for more detail about this exciting technology, and visit the websites for the Y. Maggie Chen Lab and the Singamaneni Lab to learn more about their research.
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