Spiral microfluidic devices for cell separation and sorting in bioprocesses.

Area of Science:

• Biotechnology
• Microfluidics
• Bioprocess Engineering

Background:

• Inertial microfluidic systems are gaining traction for medical uses due to simplicity and cost-effectiveness.
• Limited sample volumes have hindered continuous bioprocess applications, despite suitability for cell separation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review potential applications of inertial microfluidic cell separation in downstream bioprocesses.
• To highlight recent advancements in inertial microfluidics for bioprocess intensification.

Main Methods:

• Focus on spiral microchannels utilizing lateral hydrodynamic forces for size-based particle separation.
• Operates at moderate Reynolds numbers (Re < 2300) in laminar flow.
• Explores parallelization for increased throughput.

Main Results:

• Spiral microchannels can replace microfilters and remove contaminants like dead cells, debris, and microalgae.
• Parallelization allows for liter-scale media processing.

Conclusions:

• Inertial microfluidics shows promise for efficient cell separation in bioprocesses.
• Scalable inertial microfluidic systems could enable industrial bioprocessing applications.