Isolating intact bacteria from blood using a microfluidic monolith device

Emerging single-cell diagnostics rely on the potential to rapidly and efficiently isolate bacteria from complex biological matrices. In a recent study now published in Microsystems and Nanoengineering, Jung Y. Han and colleagues at the interdisciplinary Departments of Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Biomolecular Engineering and Bioengineering in the U.S. developed a device to isolate intact and viable bacteria from whole blood using a microfluidic, porous silica monolith. They achieved mechanical hemolysis while providing passage of intact and viable bacteria through the monoliths for size-based bacterial isolation and selective lysis. Han et al. described a process to synthesize large quantities of discrete capillary-bound monolith elements and millimeter-scale monolith bricks to integrate into microfluidic chips.