Handheld White Blood Cell Tracker Unveiled

A Rutgers researcher, through his spinoff firm, has led a team to create and test a white blood cell tracker, similar to how glucometers instantly detect blood sugar levels.

The science and medical journal PLoS One describes the device’s development by researchers at Rutgers company RizLab Health Inc., as well as the clinical validation process.

Mehdi Javanmard, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rutgers School of Engineering, is the co-founder and CEO of Princeton-based RizLab Health Inc. He founded the company based on developments in his Rutgers lab.

“Normally, doing a blood count requires a phlebotomist taking a needle stick and collecting significant amounts of venous blood and sending the samples off to labs where they are tested, sometimes taking hours or even days,” said Javanmard. “Our handheld device enables near-patient testing, while only requiring a tiny amount of blood and returning results within minutes, allowing clinicians to make decisions almost immediately.”

The CytoTracker Leukometer is a device designed to swiftly identify high or decreased white blood cell counts, which are an important indicator of a patient’s immune system function. A high or low white blood cell count might reflect the severity of an infection, the presence of life-threatening illnesses like sepsis, or how patients are reacting to chemotherapy and psychiatric medications.

The device was successfully tested in trials in collaboration with a clinical team at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Pediatric Clinical Research Center led by Dr. Tanaya Bhowmick and the Baylor College of Medicine Department of Emergency Medicine, using a direct comparison to a lab benchtop hematology analyzer, a traditional blood testing technique.

“Rapid test results have revolutionized the field of medicine,” said Bhowmick, an infectious disease physician and the paper’s co-author. “Physicians commonly order a white blood count to examine a patient for suspected infection. Having this information available quickly can assist triage patients in the outpatient context.”

The results demonstrated that the CytoTracker Leukometer was at least 97% accurate and met clinical requirements.

White blood cells, or leukocytes, defend the body against illness. Colorless, they make up roughly 1% of human blood and are mostly generated in the bone marrow. Certain varieties of leukocytes perform distinct activities. Neutrophils, for example, are capable of killing bacteria, fungus, and foreign debris.

A low white blood cell count implies that the individual is susceptible to illness. A high white blood cell count indicates either an illness or an underlying medical issue.

Javanmard stated that he sees various applications for the device. Sepsis in a patient visiting an emergency room may be diagnosed more immediately on the gadget than with current approaches that need a blood draw and a lab test, he added. Cancer specialists could quickly detect whether patients receiving chemotherapy required a white blood cell booster.

The device may also make it easier for psychiatric patients to adhere to their meds. Patients on clozapine, a common treatment for diseases such as schizophrenia, frequently develop neutropenia, or decreased neutrophil numbers. Before receiving a prescription, these individuals must have their neutrophil levels tested on a regular basis. Javanmard stated that this frequently hinders people from receiving much-needed treatment.

In his Rutgers lab, Javanmard and his students have worked to improve the capabilities of a miniaturized electronic cytometric approach that identifies minuscule particles by guiding them through tiny channels containing electrodes. The approach is similar to scanning people as they pass through an airport security gate, except it employs electrical impulses rather than film.

In one recent advancement, Javanmard stated that he and lab members used the cell-flow technology to create a test so sensitive that it could one day transform medical approaches to epidemics. RizLab Health has concentrated on sophisticated electronic cytometry development and manufacture in order to secure regulatory approval and, eventually, commercialization.

Javanmard is interested about using lab insights to real-world situations to create technologies like the CytoTracker Leukometer.

“We set out to solve one of the holy grails of medicine, which is to analyze a tiny amount of a patient’s blood in a way to give guidance to clinicians and improve clinical outcomes,” said Javanmard. “We believe this will have a huge impact in infectious disease, oncology, and psychiatry.”

Javanmard added, “Others have failed to tackle this holy grail by attempting to detect dozens, if not hundreds, of biological elements using a single drop of blood. Such approaches are inherently quite challenging. As a result, we discovered that focusing solely on white blood cells, starting with the important sub-types, was significantly more realistic.

The device must be approved by the Food and Drug Administration before it can be sold and utilized in clinical settings, according to Javanmard. Currently, it is only used for research.

For more information: Clinical evaluation of a fully electronic microfluidic white blood cell analyzer, PLOS ONE, https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0296344