"With BLIPI, a single prick to the baby's finger or heel can give us rapid insights into the infant's immune response within minutes. 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."
Assistant Professor Yeo Kee ThaiSenior Consultant, Department of NeonatologyKK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH)
Faster Insights for Fragile Newborns
The BiophysicaL Immune Profiling for Infants (BLIPI) system profiles an infant's immune function in under 15 minutes from 0.05 ml of blood. Designed to address the challenges of caring for premature babies, the portable device enables clinicians to detect severe inflammatory conditions, including sepsis and necrotising enterocolitis (NEC), much earlier than conventional laboratory methods.
Premature infants are particularly vulnerable because their immune systems are underdeveloped, while existing diagnostic tests often require comparatively large blood samples and can take hours or even days to deliver results. By requiring only a single drop of blood and providing near real-time information, BLIPI supports timely clinical decision-making when every minute counts.
Advancing Neonatal Care
Developed through a collaboration between KKH and the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), BLIPI uses microfluidic technology to assess how immune cells respond to infection by measuring changes in their size and flexibility. In an initial study involving 19 newborns, the system demonstrated its ability to distinguish immune responses between full-term and preterm infants, while also detecting significant immune cell changes in a premature baby who developed a serious bloodstream infection.
Beyond supporting care at KKH, the portable device has the potential to benefit neonatal intensive care units and resource-limited healthcare settings by enabling bedside testing without the need to transport blood samples to a laboratory. Future studies will further validate its clinical performance and support wider adoption.
