Passive Operating On-chip Plasma Isolation From Whole Blood

In clinical chemistry, a necessary step performed is the isolation of plasma from whole blood, and effective sample preparation techniques are needed for the development of miniaturized clinical diagnostic devices. This study demonstrates the use of passive microfluidic devices, which operating entirely on capillary action, for on-chip isolation of plasma from whole blood. Using these devices, several to several tens nanoliter volumes of plasma were effectively separated from a single drop of whole blood in 2 minutes. This study may have broad implications in the design of lab-on-a-chip devices for bioanalytical applications.