Mary Thompson with Dr. Robert Brown & Dr. Brian Grimberg (Center for Global Health and Diseases, Case Medical School)

Exploiting the Paramagnetic Properties of Hemozoin to Rapidly Detect Malaria

Hemozoin is formed as a waste product in Malaria’s metabolism. As malaria consumes human hemoglobin, it stores the toxic iron containing carbon structure (heme) in a simple gut-like vacuole. Here, the heme groups form dimers and then continue to polymerize into a long thin crystal. Because of the close proximity of the iron atoms in the heme groups, the hemozoin crystal is paramagnetic. This project seeks to exploit these paramagnetic properties to create an earlier detection device for malaria. The electrical properties of infected and uninfected blood will be compared using interdigitated capacitors. This instrument may hold liquid samples which span the electrodes. The magnetic properties of infected and uninfected blood will also be compared to look for a biomarker. The end goal is to develop a test which may detect malaria at 1% parasitimia or lower, while the host patient is still asymptomatic.