(680a) Developing a Magnetic Microfluidics Setup to Capture Bacterial Contaminants in Blood Products

Since bacterial contamination still remains a risk in transfused blood products, there is a critical need for early and sensitive detection methods. The aim of this project is to develop a high-throughput bacteria-sensing device by incorporating magnetic trapping in microfluidic devices.  The immediately available systems for real-time detection are deficient in their Boolean natures, excessive time and reagent consumption, and limited sensitivity in the overall scope of detection. Surface-modified paramagnetic beads facilitate adhesion to bacterial agents flowing through the microfluidic channel.  Since a magnet accompanies the microchip, our proposed design of the chip will have the ability to immobilize cells adhered to the paramagnetic beads for analysis.  By removing the magnet we are able to wash the trapped pathogens thereby preparing the device for the next detection cycle.  This ‘recycling’ feature of our proposed chip design allows for continuous sampling of bacterial cells for immediate detection.  Moreover, magnetic trapping in microfluidic systems will drastically improve the sensitivity of our technique by effectively eliminating the minimum-bacteria-concentration requirement.  Coupling magnetic trapping and surface modification of beads in microfluidic devices allows us to image and differentiate the staining kinetics on a massively parallel single-cell level, thereby enabling the ability to continuously sample heterogeneous mixtures of bacterial species.  This research will help us develop tools with the ability to couple the low sensitivity of current detection method with the critical time requirement for accurate identification of various bacteria.