# Microfluidic Assessment of Clinical Outcomes in Preterm Newborns

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA · 2021 · $635,840

## Abstract

Sepsis has its greatest impact in the prematurely born (preterm) population. Neonatal sepsis (sepsis within the
first month of life) causes over one million deaths worldwide annually, and is one of the most common, difficult
and costly problems to diagnose, treat and prevent. The preterm infant can suffer rates of sepsis up to 1000-fold
higher than the full-term infant, and bears the brunt of the associated mortality and lifelong sepsis-survivor
morbidity. Substantial clinical questions in the management of the potentially infected neonate remain
unanswered: 1) Is the infant infected?, 2) Which infants have the greatest risk for a complicated clinical course
with infection?, and 3) Why are preterm infants (especially very low birth weight infants) at such high risk of
developing infections? The paucity of investigations in the preterm infant can be attributed in large part to very
limited blood volume for study (80-100 milliliter total blood volume in a typical 28 week, 1000 gram infant), and
prior assumptions that the neonatal host immune response is similar to that seen in older children and adults.
We propose that deficiencies in innate immune function of neutrophils (PMN) in neonates are one underlying
cause of this decrease in host protective immunity, and their function can be used to predict the development of
sepsis and protracted clinical course. We intend to deliver accurate methods to diagnose sepsis, identify
prognostic and critical illness stratification markers, and uncover immunological differences with the potential for
translational interventions that may improve neonatal infection-related outcomes, all based on a novel
microfluidics platform. Specifically, we propose a prospective, observational study of 300 preterm (<30 weeks
gestational age) and 60 full-term (>36 weeks) infants in whom we will identify specific deficiencies in PMN
function, develop prediction models for sepsis, and ultimately, clinical outcome, based on microfluidics
measurements of PMN function and transcriptomics, and classical clinical measures. The project is enabled by
several novel, validated, microfluidic technologies that are robust and easy to use with little training. These
technologies provide comprehensive measures of the functionality of blood PMN population; a critical cellular
component of innate immunity. We will also extract high-quality nucleic acids from microfluidic-sorted PMNs for
transcriptomic analyses, and deliver a complete blood count with 5-part differential integrated with clinical
chemistry and inflammatory biomarkers. Collectively, these techniques require a total of ~100 microliters (L) of
blood, which makes them particularly useful for preterm infants where sample volume is limited, and facilitates
serial assessments with unprecedented temporal resolution of key functions of PMNs. These studies, integrated
with bioinformatics approaches, will generate new tools for diagnosing sepsis in the newborn and predicting
clinical outcom...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10164831
- **Project number:** 5R01HD089939-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
- **Principal Investigator:** Daniel Irimia
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $635,840
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-08-09 → 2023-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10164831

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10164831, Microfluidic Assessment of Clinical Outcomes in Preterm Newborns (5R01HD089939-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10164831. Licensed CC0.

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