title: Membrane-less microfiltration using inertial microfluidics.
abstract: Microfiltration is a ubiquitous and often crucial part of many industrial processes, including biopharmaceutical manufacturing. Yet, all existing filtration systems suffer from the issue of membrane clogging, which fundamentally limits the efficiency and reliability of the filtration process. Herein, we report the development of a membrane-less microfiltration system by massively parallelizing inertial microfluidics to achieve a macroscopic volume processing rates (~ 500 mL/min). We demonstrated the systems engineered for CHO (10-20 μm) and yeast (3-5 μm) cells filtration, which are two main cell types used for large-scale bioreactors. Our proposed system can replace existing filtration membrane and provide passive (no external force fields), continuous filtration, thus eliminating the need for membrane replacement. This platform has the desirable combinations of high throughput, low-cost, and scalability, making it compatible for a myriad of microfiltration applications and industrial purposes.
authors.affiliation: 1] School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Australian Centre for NanoMedicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia [2] BioSystems and Micromechanics (BioSyM) IRG, Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Centre, Singapore.
authors.forename: Majid Ebrahimi
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Warkiani
authors.affiliation: 1] BioSystems and Micromechanics (BioSyM) IRG, Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Centre, Singapore [2] Department of Biomedical Engineering, National University of Singapore, 117575, Singapore.
authors.forename: Andy Kah Ping
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Tay
authors.affiliation: BioSystems and Micromechanics (BioSyM) IRG, Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Centre, Singapore.
authors.forename: Guofeng
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Guan
authors.affiliation: 1] BioSystems and Micromechanics (BioSyM) IRG, Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Centre, Singapore [2] Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Jongyoon
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Han
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019149:Bioreactors; D016466:CHO Cells; D003412:Cricetulus; D005374:Filtration / Q000295:instrumentation*; D044085:Microfluidics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae