Another Lab on a Chip article has been highlighted in Chemistry World!
Parasites (green) are separated from red blood cells in the device according to shape, not size
Human African trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness, is caused by parasites in the blood called trypanosomes. The disease is transmitted by tsetse flies and is fatal is left untreated. Standard diagnosis is done by looking for the parasites in blood samples using a microscope. However, the concentration of parasites is often very low, so they need to be separated from the red blood cells before analysis. Many separation methods have been developed, but they are expensive and too complex to use in remote areas where the disease is common.
Jonas Tegenfeldt from the University of Lund, and his colleagues, have developed a microfluidic device that separates the parasites from the blood cells using their shape, because parasites and red blood cells are very difficult to separate by size.
Read Amaya Camara-Campos’ full story online here or go straight to the LOC article:
Separation of parasites from human blood using deterministic lateral displacement
Stefan H. Holm, Jason P. Beech, Michael P. Barrett and Jonas O. Tegenfeldt
Lab Chip, 2011, 11, 1326
DOI: 10.1039/c0lc00560f
