03.13.15
A professor in India might well have developed the ultimate blood test for needle-fearing patients.
Conventional blood tests typically require 5 millileters to 10 millileters of the fluid for analysis, but new technology developed by Amit Agrawal, a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B), requires only 2 millileters of blood.
Whole blood contains red and white blood cells that are suspended in fluid called plasma. Pathological examination of blood requires the plasma to be separated from the red blood cells and the white blood cells. Usually this is done by centrifugation (high speed rotation) of the blood. The disadvantage with this process is that it requires a significant amount of blood, and a centrifuge cannot be integrated with a micro-device for point-of-care applications.
Researchers at IIT-B, however, have designed a microfluidic chip for blood separation that can function with a very little blood but more importantly offers almost 100 percent efficiency in the separation.
Usually, microfluidic chips either separate blood by force (electric, gravitational, magnetic) or rely on a passive separation. Simply put, if a blood channel bifurcates, the red blood cells will move where there is a higher flow rate. The challenge in using the bifurcation method is that if one designs larger channels, the law does not work, and if one designs smaller channels of micrometer dimensions, there are problems of clogging.
Amit Agrawal, department of mechanical engineering, IIT-B, explains that the new innovation has a channel size of around 0.1 micrometers (100 micrometers) instead of a few micrometres; yet the bifurcation law works at such large dimensions. The microfluidic chip has a T-channel. When the blood is poured at one end of T-channel the blood flows normally till it encounters a split. "Red blood corpuscles continue along the straight channel with larger dimensions, whereas the plasma prefers to move through the perpendicular channel with smaller dimensions," Agrawal said.
This innovation, experts claim, potentially could revolutionize blood separation methodologies in the healthcare sector. "First, since the dimensions of the channels are much larger, it is easier to fabricate and manufacture them. Secondly, separation efficiency is 99.7 percent, a respectable jump from earlier achieved efficiency levels of around 90 percent. Finally, since the dimensions are significantly large, the chip does not encounter problems of clogging," Agrawal noted.
Experts believe the innovation would not be limited to laboratories. In fact, if this microfluidic chip is integrated with sensors, it would allow for a quick analysis with minimal blood and provide real-time monitoring at the site of a patient.
Conventional blood tests typically require 5 millileters to 10 millileters of the fluid for analysis, but new technology developed by Amit Agrawal, a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B), requires only 2 millileters of blood.
Whole blood contains red and white blood cells that are suspended in fluid called plasma. Pathological examination of blood requires the plasma to be separated from the red blood cells and the white blood cells. Usually this is done by centrifugation (high speed rotation) of the blood. The disadvantage with this process is that it requires a significant amount of blood, and a centrifuge cannot be integrated with a micro-device for point-of-care applications.
Researchers at IIT-B, however, have designed a microfluidic chip for blood separation that can function with a very little blood but more importantly offers almost 100 percent efficiency in the separation.
Usually, microfluidic chips either separate blood by force (electric, gravitational, magnetic) or rely on a passive separation. Simply put, if a blood channel bifurcates, the red blood cells will move where there is a higher flow rate. The challenge in using the bifurcation method is that if one designs larger channels, the law does not work, and if one designs smaller channels of micrometer dimensions, there are problems of clogging.
Amit Agrawal, department of mechanical engineering, IIT-B, explains that the new innovation has a channel size of around 0.1 micrometers (100 micrometers) instead of a few micrometres; yet the bifurcation law works at such large dimensions. The microfluidic chip has a T-channel. When the blood is poured at one end of T-channel the blood flows normally till it encounters a split. "Red blood corpuscles continue along the straight channel with larger dimensions, whereas the plasma prefers to move through the perpendicular channel with smaller dimensions," Agrawal said.
This innovation, experts claim, potentially could revolutionize blood separation methodologies in the healthcare sector. "First, since the dimensions of the channels are much larger, it is easier to fabricate and manufacture them. Secondly, separation efficiency is 99.7 percent, a respectable jump from earlier achieved efficiency levels of around 90 percent. Finally, since the dimensions are significantly large, the chip does not encounter problems of clogging," Agrawal noted.
Experts believe the innovation would not be limited to laboratories. In fact, if this microfluidic chip is integrated with sensors, it would allow for a quick analysis with minimal blood and provide real-time monitoring at the site of a patient.