Our microfluidics based blood chemistry device was derived from aerospace technology, which is also used in today’s aerospace industry. After five years of rigorous ground testing, Pointcare M will be installed on the Chinese space station launched in 2022 to provide daily blood chemistry tests for astronauts in orbit.

The analyzer is a portable spectrophotometer. The optical system consists of a xenon arc stroboscopiclamp and a beam-splitter/detector capable of reading nine wavelengths. A heater maintains the disc at 37±0.2°C during the reaction portion of the analysis. The reagent disc is developed based on microfluidic technology. It is an 8 cm diameter consumable containing all the required diluent and dry reagents to perform a panel of tests. The disc contains 30 cuvettes that will be filled with diluted plasma or diluent. The cuvettes have different pathlengths to accommodate different reagent sensitivities and analyte concentrations. Pre-measured, lyophilized reagent beads for each chemistry in the panel are placed in the cuvettes at the time of manufacture. To perform a panel of tests, the operator applies around 100μl whole blood directly into a disc. Using centrifugal and capillary forces, the disc meters the required amount of blood, separates the red cells, meters the plasma, meters the diluent, mixes the fluids, distributes the fluid to the reaction cuvettes and mixes the reagents and the diluted plasma in the cuvettes. The analyzer monitors the reactions simultaneously using nine wave-lengths, calculates the results from the absorbance data, and reports the results on the screen and on a convenient thermal roll-tape printer.