Direct current insulator based dielectrophoresis (DC-iDEP) microfluidic chip for blood plasma separation
- Autores: Mehdi Mohammadi Ashani
- Directores de la Tesis: Jordi Sellares González (dir. tes.), Jasmina Casals-Terré (dir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) ( España ) en 2015
- Idioma: inglés
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Hojjat Madadi (presid.), Roberto Castilla López (secret.), Nuria Torras Andrés (voc.)
- Materias:
- Enlaces
- Tesis en acceso abierto en: TDX
- Resumen
Lab-on-a-Chip (LOC) integrated microfluidics has been a powerful tool for new developments in analytical chemistry. These microfluidic systems enable the miniaturization, integration and automation of complex biochemical assays through the reduction of reagent use and enabling portability.Cell and particle separation in microfluidic systems has recently gained significant attention in many sample preparations for clinical procedures. Direct-current insulator-based dielectrophoresis (DC-iDEP) is a well-known technique that benefits from the electric field gradients generated by an array of posts for separating, moving and trapping biological particle samples. In this thesis a parametric optimization is used to determine the optimum radius of the post for particle separation. Results that are used to design a microfluidic device that with a novel combination of hydrodynamic and di-electrophoretic techniques can achieve plasma separation in a microfluidic channel from fresh blood and for the first time allows optical real-time monitoring of the components of plasma without pre or post processing. Finally, all the results are integrated to create a novel microfluidic chip for blood plasma separation, which combines microfluidics with conventional lateral flow immune chromatography to extract enough plasma to perform a blood panel. The microfluidic chip design is a combination of cross-flow filtration with a reversible electroosmotic flow that prevents clogging at the filter entrance and maximizes the amount of separated plasma. The main advantage of this design is its efficiency, since with a small amount of sample (a single droplet ~10µL) a considerable amount of plasma (more than 1µL) is extracted and collected with high purity (more than 99%) in a reasonable time (5 to 8 minutes). To validate the quality and quantity of the separated plasma and to show its potential as clinical tool, the microfluidic chip has been combined with lateral flow immune chromatography technology to perform a qualitative detection of the TSH (thyroid-stimulating hormone) and a blood panel for measuring cardiac Troponin and Creatine Kinase MB. The results obtained from the microfluidic system are comparable to previous commercial lateral flow assays that required more sample for implementing less tests.
