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Micromagnetic-Microfluidic Blood Filter |
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The Ingber Lab at
Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston has developed
a magnetic blood filtering system to get rid of microbes from blood
in situ. This system works by adding plastic-coated
iron-oxide beads that are coated with antibodies for a specific
pathogen. The beads will then strongly adhere to the pathogen in
the blood and when passed through an electromagnet, the
bead-pathogen complex can be separated from the rest of the blood.
The end goal is to minimize the pathogen concentration to a level
where drugs can be more effective at eliminating the remaining
pathogen in the blood and reduce the mortality associated with
sepsis.
In initial testing,
the Ingber lab combined Candida albicans with blood and
the antibody coated iron beads. The solution was then filtered
through their system, a dialysis like device with electromagnets
and up to 80 percent of the bead-pathogen complex were
removed. |
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Image from Yung, C. W., et al,
"Micromagnetic-microfluidic blood cleansing device" Lab Chip, 2009,
9, 1171-1177 |
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This chart shows
(a) the multi-fluorescence labeling of magnetic beads
coated with antibodies for Candida albicans and (b) the
effectiveness of the filtration of the bead-pathogen
complex. |
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These types of microfluidic filter systems have
the advantage of selective separation of the pathogen complexes
from the flowing blood without the need for a filter membrane which
can restrict flow and induce clotting while providing a large
surface area to increase the efficiency of the entire prcoess. Dr.
Don Ingber MD PhD, lab director, reports that animal testing is to
commence this fall. |
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