An Overview of Microfluidic Phenotype Separation of Bacteria

With the development of microfluidics technology, it is now possible in medical biotechnology to examine clinical and rapid diagnostic operations involving pathogens, like bacteria and viruses. The method of separating bacteria from complicated homogeneous and heterogeneous samples is one of the most important steps in the diagnostic process. The microfluidic technology for bacterial separation offers a better and more promising platform by combining several physical properties and characteristics of bacteria. In contrast, the conventional method is time-consuming, limited to a few cell properties, and necessitates the completion of several challenging steps and processes involving skilled manpower. The microfluidics platform also has a number of advantages, including small-scale size, low cost, high efficiency, and simultaneous detection and execution of further steps. This enables cell separation, analysis, and experimental processing on a single chip. In this paper, we have analysed the mechanism of the bacterial separation process depending on phenocharacteristics along with their benefits, constraints, and applications. In addition, the performance metrics needed for the separation of the devices along with the challenges and future possibilities of developed devices, which are described in the literature, are discussed in detail. Thus, this review offers a holistic analysis of the separation of bacteria using microfluidic technology.