Showcasing the BLIPI system (from left to right): Nicholas Ng, Research Engineer, SMART Critical Analytics for Manufacturing Personalized-Medicine (CAMP); Assistant Professor Yeo Kee Thai, Senior Consultant, Department of Neonatology, KKH; Dr Kerwin Kwek, Research Scientist, SMART CAMP and SMART Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) and Dr Genevieve Llanora, Department of Neonatology, KKH.

• KKH and Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology develop a first-of-its-kind BiophysicaL Immune Profiling for Infants system to profile a newborn’s immune function within minutes, using a single drop of blood.
• The portable diagnostic tool enables quick detection of infections in premature babies at the bedside, helping clinicians make timely decisions in critical situations to save lives.
• Plans are underway for more large-scale clinical trials to benefit more newborns.

Clinicians can now rapidly determine whether a newborn is sick, using the BiophysicaL Immune Profiling for Infants (BLIPI) system – a first-of-its-kind device that provides real-time insights into newborns’ immune responses, using a single drop of blood.

This portable diagnostic tool – developed by KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH) and Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)’s research enterprise in Singapore – provides swift results, helping clinicians make timely, life-saving decisions in critical situations such as sepsis, where early treatment is vital.

Significantly cutting down decision-to-implementation time for health interventions, particularly amongst premature newborns, translates to better health outcomes in this vulnerable population.

“Premature babies often struggle to fight infections with their immature immune systems, and we are determined to advance care not only to help them survive, but also to help them thrive,” said Assistant Professor Yeo Kee Thai, Senior Consultant, Department of Neonatology, KKH.

“BLIPI is giving us rapid insights into the infant’s immune response within minutes, like never before. This allows us to tailor treatments more precisely and respond faster to give these fragile babies the best chance at a healthy start not just in their early days, but throughout their lives,” added Asst Prof Yeo, who is also a senior author of the KKH study on BLIPI.

How BLIPI works

Using just one drop of blood, BLIPI quickly reveals whether a baby’s immune system is fighting an infection; leveraging microfluidic technology to measure how immune cells change in their size and flexibility when fighting infection.

Results can be determined within 15 minutes at the ward or neonatal intensive care unit, removing the need for transporting blood samples to the laboratory.

Requiring just 0.05ml – or one drop – of blood for testing, it is particularly useful for very premature infants with low birth weight and total blood volume, preventing anaemia and other complications arising from repeated or high-volume sampling.

Assistant Professor Yeo and Dr Genevieve demonstrating the use of BLIPI in the KKH Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. A drop of blood is placed on a pillar array, which sorts immune cells based on their size and deformability. A chart is generated describing the biophysical profile of the baby’s cells.

KKH research demonstrates BLIPI’s diagnostic capabilities

A KKH study showed BLIPI’s potential in detecting infections early in infants. Of 19 infants screened at multiple timepoints – eight full-term and 11 preterm – clear differences were seen in how immune cells looked and behaved between the babies. Notably, when one premature baby developed a serious blood infection, the device was able to detect significant immune cell changes.

The BLIPI team plans to conduct more large-scale clinical trials across diverse neonatal populations. Refinements to the device’s design are also underway to enable greater accessibility by the cot side, for widespread adoption in hospitals globally.

The research conducted at SMART is supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) Singapore under its Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) programme. The research study by KKH was partially supported by the Nurturing Clinician Scientist Scheme under the SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Clinical Programme (ACP) Programme Grant.