. Hemoglobinopathies are the most common monogenic diseases with approximately 7% of the world's population being carriers. Sickle cell disease (SCD) and thalassemia are primarily hemoglobin disorders. The current SCD diagnostic methods require expensive equipment and are performed by highly trained laboratory technologists. Presently there are no simple and inexpensive screening tests that can differentiate patients with sickle cell trait (HbAS) from sickle cell disease conditions (HbSS, HbSC and HbS ss-thalassemias). The goal of this project is to develop antibody- based lateral flow POC device that will allow efficiently, inexpensively and rapidly diagnose a patient with SCD. In Phase I, hemoglobin isoform-specific antibodies will be developed and lateral flow POC device prototypes will be formulated. In Phase II, POC device will be optimized, produced in a large scale and undergo extensive field hospital tests.
Sickle cell disease (SDC) is the most common genetic disorder. As a result of this project, antibody-based lateral flow Point-of-Care device will be developed allowing efficiently, inexpensively and rapidly diagnose sickle cell disease in infants and young children in low-income and low-resource settings. (End of Abstract)
