(279g) Keynote: Separation of Blood Cells from Plasma through Membranes in Dry Plasma Spot Applications

Jie Gao, Kwee Hiang Jackson Low, Chester Lee Drum, Tai E. Shyong and Tai-Shung Chung^*

Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering,

National University of Singapore, Singapore 117585

*Corresponding author

Tel: +65-65166645; fax: +65-67791936; Email: chencts@nus.edu.sg

We describe the use of advanced materials to cheaply fabricate a pre-analytical sample stabilization matrix. There is a strong need for a robust blood & plasma-collecting device, engineered to stabilize small molecules, antigens, antibodies, DNA or other biomarkers of interest, at the point of collection, at an affordable price, utilized for surveillance and mass screening of diseases or to monitor outbreaks. Thus, we proposed to decellularize and dehydrate plasma with a combined system made from a piece of the thin membrane and a water-drawing adsorbent layer. When specimen blood is dropped onto the device surface, blood cells will be retained and prevented from entering the membrane matrix due to size exclusion. Driven by gravity, the liquid plasma will penetrate into the plasma drawing layer with all the biomarkers being retained in the layer.

Commercialized membranes designed to remove blood cells from blood include the Noviplex card from Shimadzu and Vivid^® membranes from Pall Corporation. However, the systems and membranes are relatively expensive. Development of high-efficiency membranes for decellularization via gravity at affordable prices is very meaningful, especially for dry plasma spot (DPS) applications. In the study, we have developed polyacrylonitrile (PAN) membranes which are able to recover plasma as high as 28.05 % with zero retention to glutamine by using gravity as the driving force. The developed membranes have a higher plasma recovery as compared to the commercialized membranes, which have plasma recoveries of 17.04 % or less. Novel membranes that can provide point of care separation of blood components may have great potential in microvolume sample collection applications.