Microfluidics boost blood cell production

Researchers use microfluidics to purify lab-grown blood cells faster, helping study a malaria-causing parasite. ↓↓More info and references below↓↓

Plasmodium vivax is the most common parasite to cause malaria in Asia and South America. It preferentially infects an immature red blood cell that accounts for only 1–2% of circulating blood. The limited supply of these cells—called reticulocytes—has made it difficult to study P. vivax in the lab. Now, researchers at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology report two microfluidic methods for purifying lab-grown reticulocytes, one of which calls to mind the game Plinko from game show The Price is Right. The team demonstrates that the cheap, microfluidic chip-based methods offer comparable purity and faster processing times compared with standard sorting methods. These purification methods could also help advance the field’s long-standing goal of manufacturing red blood cells for transfusions.

Read more:

Microfluidic label-free bioprocessing of human reticulocytes from erythroid culture | Lab on a Chip
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2020/lc/c9lc01128e#!divAbstract

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Видео Microfluidics boost blood cell production канала Chemical & Engineering News