INIT-00 · ITP_CHALLENGE_OVERVIEW · Jun 2025 – Jan 2026
ITP Rapid Diagnostic Test.
A lateral flow assay for Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura. One strip. One answer. Done in minutes — not years of tests and uncertainty.
Context
Why This Matters.
ITP — Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura — is an autoimmune disease where the body attacks its own blood platelets. Left untreated, it causes severe bruising, internal bleeding, and in serious cases, life-threatening haemorrhage.
Here's the problem: there's no direct test for it. Doctors run 15–20 different blood tests to rule out every other possible cause. Only after all of them come back negative is a patient told: "You have ITP."
The average wait for a diagnosis is 7–8 years. People spend almost a decade suffering, being dismissed, watching their condition worsen while medical teams rule things out one by one.
I designed a test that works like a pregnancy test. One strip. One answer. Done.
The lateral flow assay detects the specific immune markers that prove the body is producing antibodies against its own blood platelets — the precise immunological signature of ITP. It doesn't rule things out. It rules ITP in.
Result time: minutes. Target cost: a fraction of the current pathway. Required equipment: none beyond the strip itself.
Technical Log
How It Works.
Background
Why I Built This.
I was diagnosed with ITP. The diagnosis didn't come quickly — it came after tests, uncertainty, and a long period of being told nothing definitive while my body was clearly doing something wrong. That experience is the reason this project exists.
I also founded the Autoimmune Support Club, a community of 500+ people living with autoimmune conditions. Through 300+ patient interviews, I heard versions of the same story repeatedly: long delays, misdiagnoses, medical gaslighting, years lost to a diagnostic process that shouldn't take that long.
This research is my attempt to do something concrete about that. It's not a cure. But a fast, affordable, accessible diagnostic that can tell a doctor and a patient "yes, this is ITP" within minutes — that changes the timeline. That changes lives.
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