Electrohydrodynamically-driven blood plasma separation

Ionic or corona wind generated by applying a voltage to a sharp needle tip is used to shear the surface of a liquid housed in a tiny microfluidic chamber about 8 mm in diameter and 4 mm deep. These surface vortices induce a secondary spiral or tornado-like flow. Particles suspended in the fluid, in this case, red blood cells in blood plasma, spiral downwards to a bottom stagnation point in much the same way that tea leaves in a stirred tea cup accumulate in the center at the base of the cup. This is exploited to perform microfluidic blood plasma separation in under 300 seconds without sample contact or mechanically moving parts. The technology is therefore useful for the development of miniaturised medical diagnostic kits. References: Yeo et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 89, 103516, 2006; Arifin et al., Biomicrofluidics 1, 014103, 2007. Press releases: 'Stirring things apart', The Economist, 20 Jan. 2007.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• electrohydrodynamics
• blood
• microfluidics
• ionic
• wind
• corona
• discharge
• vortex
• spiral
• tornado

[Brennafugg]

that was so fake

[flyingfish555]

Neat! I hear a lot of talk about on-chip separation for aggregometers. Spirally thingies, EHD Chambers, and even Fluorescence activated and optical sorting...It is all cool technology. I'm just curious (because I *have* to be difficult like this!), why is this so important when whole blood can be separated with a simple centrifuge?

[abracara13]

woooo hoooooo!!!! Science videos at their best!

[PlyrZnrgy]

Oh my god, What are we doing here? The state of humanity is quite amazing at the moment.