The manufacture and preliminary testing of a novel Bio-MEMS filtration chip

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1 Diamond Light Source, Didcot, United Kingdom
2 Department of Engineering, Aston University, Birmingham, England
3 Department of Engineering, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, England
4 Department of Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, England
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.5v1
Published
Accepted
Subject Areas
Biochemistry, Bioengineering, Biotechnology, Cell Biology
Keywords
Bio MEMS filtration chip, filtration chip
Copyright
© 2013 Docker et al.
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Cite this article
Docker PT, Prince M, Ma X, Ward M, Kinnell P. 2013. The manufacture and preliminary testing of a novel Bio-MEMS filtration chip. PeerJ PrePrints 1:e5v1

Abstract

In the clinical/microbiological laboratory there are currently several ways of separating specific cells from a fluid suspension. Conventionally cells can be separated based on size, density, electrical charge, light-scattering properties, and antigenic surface properties. Separating cells using these parameters can require complex technologies and specialist equipment which may damage sensitive cells. The pumping mechanism described here leaves samples undamaged either mechanically or chemically unlike many other current filtration techniques. This paper proposes new Bio-MEMS filtration chips manufactured using micro systems technology (MST) that, when used in conjunction with an optical microscope and a syringe, can filter and grade cells for size without the requirement for additional expensive equipment. These chips also offer great versatility in terms of design and their low cost allows them to be disposable, eliminating sample contamination.