Photo: Kennesaw State University
Most of the estimated 300,000 babies born each year with sickle cell disease, an inherited red blood cell disorder, live in sub-Saharan Africa where there are few resources to treat them. Sickle cell disease causes a lower oxygen level and abnormal blood flow in the brain, and without treatment, 11% of afflicted children will have a stroke before age 20. The mortality rate for children younger than five is 50% to 80%. Professor Paul (Seung Yup) Lee of Kennesaw State University is developing a low-cost, light-based device that can noninvasively measure brain blood flow and determine an affected child’s risk of stroke, with funding from the National Institutes of Health.
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