Lab-on-a-chip device for blood filtration and separation

Blood is composed primarily of cells (red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, etc.) and plasma (the fluid in which the cells are suspended). Health care providers commonly require the components of blood to be separated before performing tests; currently, this requires blood samples be taken to a medical laboratory for processing. Recent advances in “lab-on-a-chip” technology have produced devices with branched microchannels (channels approximately the width of a human hair) that are designed so that, as blood flows through them, the different components take different paths and can be isolated. This research project will seek to use a new, cheap “rapid prototyping” manufacturing method to produce similar devices, and then to modify the channel arrangement for more efficient and controllable separation. The project will study the way in which the fluid/particle mixture flows through such small channels, which will result in microchannel designs with applications in industry as well as in health care.

Faculty Supervisor:

Prashant Waghmare

Student:

Geoffrey Casey

Partner:

Discipline:

Engineering - mechanical

Sector:

University:

University of Alberta

Program:

Globalink Research Award