Shuvo Roy, PhD, and his team at UCSF have developed a promising new technology that could one day help save the lives of extremely premature babies. Their research, recently published in Bioengineering & Translational Medicine, describes a tiny device — called a silicon membrane microfluidic oxygenator — that represents a significant step forward in the development of an artificial placenta.
“An artificial placenta would support very premature infants by performing one of the most important jobs of the womb: delivering oxygen to the baby’s blood,” says Roy, professor in the UCSF Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, a member of UCSF’s Health Innovation in Engineering center, and technical director of The Kidney Project. “Current devices that provide oxygen require high doses of blood-thinning medication, which can be dangerous for fragile newborns.”
Roy’s team designed a new type of oxygenator using ultra-thin silicon membranes, similar to those used in computer chips. In early tests, prototypes of the device worked effectively while requiring far less blood thinner, making it much safer for infants.
The technology was successfully tested in animal models, suggesting that this approach could be viable for human use in the future. “While more work is needed before it reaches the clinic, this research marks an important step toward giving premature babies a safer option,” Roy says.