Improved Sample Collection Method for Dried Blood Spot Cards

Charles Mace of Tufts University in the U.S. will develop paper-based cards to improve the collection, storage, and transport of blood samples from remote areas to diagnostic laboratories in low-resource settings. Dried blood spot cards are a low-cost and simple method for collecting and storing blood samples for analysis. However, they have a very basic design, which makes it difficult to control sample volume and elute specific types of molecules, which are needed to properly perform many diagnostic tests. To address this, they will improve the design and fabrication of the spot cards by patterning them with a specialized network of channels to trap the samples, and incorporating complementary materials to separate specific components of the blood. They will evaluate the manufacturing, storage capacity, and performance of their device using clinical samples in the laboratory.