Their new device uses a combination of microfluidics
"These exosomes often contain specific molecules that are a signature of certain abnormalities. If you isolate them from blood, you can do biological analysis and see what they reveal," says Ming Dao, a principal research scientist in MIT's Department of Materials Science and Engineering and a senior author of the study, which appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of Sept. 18.
The paper's senior authors also include Subra Suresh, president-designate of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, MIT's Vannevar Bush Professor of Engineering Emeritus, and a former dean of engineering at MIT; Tony Jun Huang, a professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Duke University; and Yoel Sadovsky, director of the Magee-Women's Research Institute. The paper's lead author is Duke graduate student Mengxi Wu.
Sorting with sound
In 2014, the same team of researchers first reported that they could separate cells by exposing them to sound waves as they flowed through a tiny channel. This technique offers a gentler alternative to other cell-sorting technologies, which require tagging the cells with chemicals or exposing them to stronger mechanical forces that may damage them.
Since then, the researchers have shown that this technology can be used to isolate rare, circulating tumor cells from a blood sample. In their new study, they set out to capture exosomes. These vesicles, which are usually about 30 to 150 nanometers in diameter, can carry proteins, RNA, or other important cellular molecules.
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-09-blood-tissue-biopsies.html#jCp
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