Date of Award

6-6-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Santa Clara : Santa Clara University, 2025

Department

Bioengineering

First Advisor

Emre Araci

Abstract

Sepsis is a general diagnosis related to a dysregulated immune response to a source of infection that, if left untreated, will most likely result in organ failure and eventual death. Sepsis affects 49 million people annually, and is responsible for 11 million annual deaths, according to Jarczak 1. A recent study has shown that over 80% of sepsis deaths may be preventable with earlier diagnosis and treatment, and that the risk of mortality increases by 8% for every hour that sepsis goes untreated 5. Thus, our team identified that the timeliness of sepsis diagnosis is a paramount healthcare need.

We further identified the shortcomings of current diagnostic methods to be: 1) the dominance of prognostic tests which make up for diagnostic capabilities, 2 2) long incubation periods in traditional tests like blood cultures, and 3) reliance on downstream indications of organ failure. Inspired by the "Third International Consensus on Sepsis,"2 we recognize that a paradigm shift in sepsis patient diagnostics needs to occur in order to adequately address the needs of early diagnosis.

To meet these needs, this project consists of three design goals: 1) sample collection and patient accessibility, 2) interface between patient withdrawal and sample deposition, and 3) biomarker detection methodology. Our vision is that a tapered optical fiber within a microfluidic device, conjugated with antibody-based probes, is a promising platform to continually measure biomarkers from blood that are relevant for the early detection of sepsis. In this thesis we describe the steps taken towards these goals including subsystem manufacturing, optical and fluidic testing, and reagent characterization.

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