Development of Plasma Separation Technology Using Magnets... "Increased Blood Test Accuracy Without Power"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] A domestic research team has developed a technology that cleanly separates plasma from blood using only magnets. This is a power-free and electricity-free plasma separation technology. It is expected to improve the accuracy of on-site diagnostic blood tests, which have recently seen increased demand.

The research team led by Professor Kang Joo-heon of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) developed a technology where blood flowing inside a chip is exposed to a magnet, causing blood cells to be pushed away from the magnet, thereby separating plasma and blood cells. Using this method, the researchers were able to quickly obtain pure plasma with 0% blood cell content. They also succeeded in developing a highly accurate on-site diagnostic chip capable of simultaneous plasma separation and blood testing on a single chip.

Blood is divided into blood cells such as red blood cells and white blood cells, and a pale yellow liquid called plasma. Biomarkers such as bacterial genes and proteins, which are sought in blood tests, are contained in the plasma. For accurate testing, it is necessary to cleanly separate plasma from blood.

Existing filter-based plasma separation technologies risk white blood cells or red blood cells rupturing during the separation process, potentially affecting test results due to nucleic acids or proteins released. Additionally, microfluidic chip technologies that do not damage blood cells either yield limited plasma volume from collected blood samples or require lengthy blood preprocessing steps.

The research team developed a technology that separates plasma without power or electricity by utilizing the principle that paramagnetic particles added to blood cause blood cells and plasma components to respond differently to magnets (difference in magnetic susceptibility). This principle generates a force that pushes blood cells away from the magnet. Paramagnetic particles can be easily removed after plasma separation using a magnetic structure.

The developed power-free plasma separation technology quickly obtains pure plasma without hemolysis (rupture of red blood cells) or blood cell contamination. In particular, in experiments separating plasma from bacterially infected blood, bacterial genes were detected at twice the level compared to plasma separated by conventional centrifugation technology.

The research team also developed an ultra-small, low-cost, high-precision diagnostic chip that can test blood directly without plasma separation by applying this technology. Using the developed diagnostic chip, they were able to detect PSA protein, a biomarker for prostate cancer diagnosis.

Professor Kang said, “Although many studies have been conducted to develop reliable power-free plasma separation technologies, none have met all requirements simultaneously. If this novel plasma separation technology using magnets is successfully applied to on-site diagnostic blood analysis, it is expected to have a significant impact.”

UNIST Research Assistant Professor Kwon Se-yong explained, “We overcame the limitations of filter-based technologies that cause blood cell damage and existing microfluidic chip-based separation technologies that have yield and purity issues with just one magnet.”

The newly developed technology also enables platelet-rich plasma (PRP) separation. Platelets have recently been recognized as new biomarkers for cancer and diabetes diagnosis. Biomedical Engineering researcher Oh Ji-woong explained, “Unlike existing complex PRP separation technologies, we were able to easily control the platelet amount in plasma simply by adjusting the blood flow rate inside the chip.”

The research results were published on the 12th in Small, a world-renowned academic journal published by Wiley, and are scheduled to be featured as a back cover paper.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.