Thread: Students Modify Salad Spinner Into Centrifuge for Blood Testing

Salad Spinner Centrifuge: A Cheap, Ingenious Health Care Tool - Healthy Living on Shine

As we learn from EurekAlert, Rice University undergraduates Lila Kerr and Lauren Theis were presented with an assignment in their Introduction to Bioengineering and World Health class. As Theis explains:

"We were essentially told we need to find a way to diagnose anemia without power, without it being very costly and with a portable device."

In a solution short on cost but long on ingenuity, the duo modified a basic, every day salad spinner into an easy to use and transport centrifuge that successfully separates blood to allow diagnosis of anemia with no electricity. The device costs about $30, can process 30 individual 15 microliter blood samples at a time, and can separate blood into its component red cells and plasma in about 20 minutes.

That's pretty neat!

This could go a long way in third world countries.

That is really interesting and an extremely practical real-world application for health science, biology, research and medicine worldwide.

Centrifuges can be very expensive, yet are rudimentary to have in any biology research laboratory or health care center or mobile medical sites.

There are microcentrifuges, regular centrifuges, massive centrifuges, vortexes for centrifugation of pipets and micropipets etc. the list of biomedical equipment available to conduct research is limitless

The biotechnology available today is amazing, yet I have always been an advocate of science, biology, health and medicine education, applications and promotion should be free or at little cost to everyone in the world.

Biology is life and we are all living beings, so why should it costs us to live our lives better.

I am glad to see that quality education in biology is being provided to these two students who invented this portable centrifuge out of a salad spinner.

I found it interesting though that this was a project for, bioengineering students.

I wanted to pursue a degree in Bioengineering myself, but bioengineering involves the engineering of biological organisms and living things, not the engineering of technology and new medical equipment.

Perhaps a project such as this one would have been more relevant to a bio-medical engineering biology course instead.

Bioengineering and Bio-medical Engineering are not the same field of study, major or concentration.

Hi,

I wonder if thing like this will bring the cost of a Doctor visit down?

Last months ER bill almost put me back in the Hospital.

"I think I'm having a heart attack. You hear that Elizabeth I'm coming to join you honey." - Fred G. Sanford

:flower:

Sami

Yes the thing has great potential, and will open many options in under developed countries but, Im sure the person that gets stuck with the job of spinning that thing for 20 minutes wont be overly thrilled!!! LOL

It would be cool if it can be used by bicycle power or something like that. It'd be easier using your legs then arms for something like this. Seems like it'd be doable from an engineering standpoint.

Originally Posted by Big Dan

It would be cool if it can be used by bicycle power or something like that. It'd be easier using your legs then arms for something like this. Seems like it'd be doable from an engineering standpoint.

Hi,

You know how one thing reminds you of another? Bicycle power. That reminds me of Gilligan's Island where the professor made a washing machine out of bicycle that Gilligan had to peddle to wash the cloths.


:flower:

Sami

Originally Posted by Sami4u

I wonder if thing like this will bring the cost of a Doctor visit down?

That would be cool if it did, but Healthcare in America has spoiled us, this simple product could save someone's life in a third world country.

However, even me having a familiarity with the biology and health care field, if I were at a doctor's visit and the doctor was to come up to me with with a salad shooter in their hands I would not know what to do, lol.

Run Away, Never Go Back to that Doctor, File a Sexual Harrasment Suit, Say "Hey I Like Your Thinking, Kinky" lol I really don't know how I would react, lol but it is a good idea for those who need it and can appreciate it.

these girls did the good job....according to my country i dont know when their Salas Spinner could be used, but it can be exported to Africa for example...

amazing what passionate people can do.

if this happens what will the doctors do ?