Spin Doctors

Two students from Rice University in Houston created a centrifuge to help diagnose anemia using only thirty dollars worth of common household items: a hot glue gun, a few cut up plastic combs, empty yoghurt containers, and a salad spinner. Inventors, sophomore Lila Kerr and freshman Lauren Theis, were challenged to make a medical device that is portable and can operate without electricity.

This ingenious contraption spins tubes of blood, separating heavier red blood cells from the lighter plasma without using batteries or electricity. Doctors can tell if a patient is anemic by the hematocrit, or ratio of red blood cells to the total volume. Anemia is a symptom of more dire diseases and problems such as malnutrition, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and malaria.

The salad spinner--blood separator, nicknamed Sally Centrifuge, will be field tested this summer as part of Beyond Traditional Borders (BTB), the Rice University health initiative that takes new ideas and technologies to developing countries.

Sally Centrifuge, a lightweight, durable, human-powered tool that spins 30 tubes at a time, takes the place of the ZIPocrit, a miniature, battery-powered device that spins 4 tubes at a time. It does take half the time of Sally Centrifuge, but the cost is significantly higher. ZIPocrits are available on amazon.com for just over a thousand dollars. At $30, Sally is a bargain, and gets results in10 minutes.