Microfluidic sample handling for point of care technologies – extraction of blood plasma on a chip

Contact:

Andrea Pfreundt (PhD student), Nano-Bio Integrated Systems, anpf@nanotech.dtu.dk

In order to bring highly sensitive diagnostic devices into the point of care environment, we need to develop means for integrating micro- and nanosized biosensors into an easy-to-use device. Many sensor technologies are already available that have the sensitivity and selectivity to provide information about low concentrations of biomarkers such as proteins or metabolites that are relevant to the diagnosis and monitoring of diseases. However, to make use of such systems at the point of case, such as a doctor’s practice of in a clinic, the handling of patient samples in a safe and intuitive way requires further attention. Providing a versatile platform that can extract and purify very small amounts of patient blood plasma and deliver it to a biosensor is the first step to a fully integrated system.

In this project, you will investigate 2 different devices for the extraction of small amounts of blood plasma and evaluate their efficiency to remove red and white blood cells. The focus is on low-cost devices that require minimal user input for operation and provide sufficient performance to extract relevant concentrations of biomarkers. A labeled sample protein will be mixed with the blood samples and the concentration determined before and after purification in order to estimate the recovery rate.

You will learn how to design and fabricate microfluidic devices using micro milling, laser ablation and thermal bonding. You will further learn how to quantify protein concentrations and estimate the recovery rate of protein after purification. You will further be working with biological material such as proteins and real blood samples.