Microfluidic bases sample preparation for blood stream infections

Abstract: Microfluidics promises to re-shape the current health-care system by transferring diagnostic tools from central laboratories to close vicinity of the patient (point-of-care). One of the most important operational steps in any diagnostic platform is sample preparation, which is the main subject in this thesis. The goal of sample preparation is to isolate targets of interest from their surroundings. The work in this thesis is based on three ways to isolate bacteria:  immune-based isolation, selective cell lysis, size-based separation.The first sample-preparation approach uses antibodies against lipopolysaccharides (LPS), which are surface molecules found on all gram-negative bacteria. There are two characteristics that make this surface molecule interesting. First, it is highly abundant: one bacterium has approximately a million LPS molecules on its cell-wall. Second, the molecule has a conserved region within all gram-negative bacteria, so using one affinity molecule to isolate disease-causing gram-negative bacteria is an attractive option, particularly from the point of view of sample preparation. The main challenge, however, is antigen accessibility. To address this, we have developed a treatment protocol that improves the capturing efficiency.The strategy behind selective cell lysis takes advantage of the differences between the blood-cell membrane and the bacterial cell-wall. These fundamental differences make it possible to lyse (destroy) blood-cells selectively while keeping the target of interest, here the bacteria, intact and, what is more important alive. Viability plays an important role in determining antibiotic susceptibility.Difference in size is another well-used characteristic for sample- separation. Inertial microfluidics can focus size-dependent particle at high flow-rates. Thus, particles of 10 µm diameter were positioned in precise streamlines within a curved channel.  The focused particles can then be collected at defined outlets.  This approach was then used to isolate white blood cells, which account for approximately 1% of the whole blood.  In such a device particles of 2µm diameter (size of bacteria) would not be focused and thereby present at every outlet. To separate bacteria from blood elasto-inertial microfluidics was used. Here, e blood components are diverted to center of the channels while smaller bacteria remain in the side streams and can subsequently be separated.