b'COLLECTING BLOODWITHOUT THE PAINFUL JABREDDROP DXDiagnosticsbe they for clinical care or clinical trialsoften require blood testing. Getting blood samples has always meant getting jabbed, either via a finger poke or a hypodermic needle. Both hurt. Kris Buchanan and Dirk van den Boom wondered: Could blood be drawn without the ouch?The answer, they suspected, was yes, and in 2019 they founded RedDrop Dx in Fort Collins to pursue pain-free blood collection. Their efforts got a big boost in 2022, when the six-person company won a $250,000 OEDIT grant.RedDrop Dxs first product is a collection device delivering lab-quality whole blood and plasma into Becton Dickinson Microtainers ranging from 0.25 milliliters to 0.6 milliliters in volume. The system works by poking moreKris Buchanan, CEO, RedDrop Dxthan a dozen tiny holes in the skin so quickly that the nervous system scarcely takes note. Buchanan, RedDrop Dxs CEO, likens the sen-sation to a sharp tap. Then, for two minutes, the tube slowly fills. Its low-cost and, crucially, can be done at home, because patients can draw their own blood samples and ship them to providers. This opens the door for more precise tele-medicine as well as remote clinical-trial testing. RedDrop Dx is finalizing the products design and starting to build the units to be used in its own clinical study. Theyre looking for FDA 510(k) approval as a class 2 medical device by the end of this year and aim to start shipping by early 2024. Given that competing devices are all essentially lancets, the bar for regula-tory clearance is relatively low, Buchanan says.All we really have to show is that we pull blood out of people, and that we dont cause any harm to the person, he says. So we dont have to do a huge clinical trial to prove that. Kris Buchanan, CEO, and the RedDrop Dx team2023-2024 BIOSCIENCE COLORADO 39'