Continuous High-Throughput Plasma Separation for Blood Biomarker Sensing Using a Hydrodynamic Microfluidic Device.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Fluid Dynamics
• Clinical Diagnostics

Background:

• Effective blood plasma separation is crucial for clinical biomarker detection.
• Existing methods like centrifugation and current microfluidics have limitations in throughput, cost, yield, and purity.
• There is a need for continuous, high-throughput plasma separation technologies meeting clinical demands.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a microfluidic device for continuous, cost-effective, high-throughput blood plasma separation.
• To optimize microchannel design for improved plasma extraction yield and purity.
• To confirm the suitability of the separated plasma for downstream biomarker analysis.

Main Methods:

• Design and fabrication of a microfluidic device utilizing passive hydrodynamic principles.
• Computational and experimental assessments to optimize side channel lengths for plasma extraction.
• Testing the device with whole blood and diluted blood, evaluating purity, yield, and hemolysis.
• Validation of plasma quality using bead-based fluorescence and electrochemical aptamer biosensing.

Main Results:

• The developed Hydrodynamic Continuous, High-Throughput Plasma Separator (HCHPS) device achieves 47-64% purity and 10-18% yield for whole blood, with reduced hemolysis compared to centrifugation.
• Separation of diluted blood yielded 62-97% purity with comparable yield.
• Demonstrated successful downstream biomarker analysis using the separated plasma via fluorescence and electrochemical biosensing.

Conclusions:

• The HCHPS microfluidic device provides an efficient solution for continuous, high-throughput plasma separation.
• The optimized design ensures admissible yield and purity, suitable for clinical biomarker detection.
• This technology offers a promising alternative to conventional methods for preparing plasma samples.