A COLOR-BASED, DISPOSABLE ANEMIA TEST

Two billion people worldwide have iron deficiency anemia, a condition in which blood lacks adequate healthy red blood cells needed to carry oxygen to tissues. Left untreated, anemia can lead to severe health problems. To help people monitor their blood-iron levels more easily, Sanguina LLC, a small business funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), has developed a color-based anemia test. Erika Tyburski, co-founder and research lead for Sanguina, says the test can be performed in under a minute with one drop of blood and produces a color result that can be interpreted by the naked eye. The colors correlate to the degree of anemia, if any, and range from blue to red. The colors are easily differentiated from one another and can be interpreted without any additional electronic equipment _ and an optional smartphone app can even be used to enable automated analysis, she says. Sanguina is supported through the NSF Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer program, a $188 million activity that catalyzes commercialization of high-risk technological innovations via research and development grants to small businesses and startups.