title: Motor-assisted chip-in-a-tube (MACT): a new 2- and 3-dimensional centrifugal microfluidic platform for biomedical applications.
abstract: Currently, centrifuge apparatus is primarily an end-point sample processing piece of equipment. The lack of real-time active control has imposed an inherent limitation such that many delicate sample processing steps requiring immediate and accurate intervention have never been possible. We report herein a motor-assisted chip-in-a-tube (MACT) platform in which a microfluidic chip placed inside a common centrifuge canister can be rotated through wireless control in order to manipulate the centrifugal force vector in a 3-dimensional (3D) manner. As a demonstration experiment, we have used our MACT prototype to perform the operation for two common biomedical procedures, namely human blood plasma separation and E. coli plasmid DNA extraction. This simple, yet highly effective and versatile approach may serve as a generic one-for-all platform for a wide range of common laboratory experiments and bioassay applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronic Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China. hpho@ee.cuhk.edu.hk.
authors.forename: Minghui
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2421-8314
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronic Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China. hpho@ee.cuhk.edu.hk.|School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Jacky
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0355-8865
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Loo
authors.affiliation: Institute of Optical Communication Engineering, Nanjing University, Jiangsu 210009, China. wangguanghui@nju.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yuye
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Optical Communication Engineering, Nanjing University, Jiangsu 210009, China. wangguanghui@nju.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xuping
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronic Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China. hpho@ee.cuhk.edu.hk.
authors.forename: Ho-Chin
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Kwok
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Mamie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hui
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Czarina Chi-Hung
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Leung
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Siu-Kai
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Kong
authors.affiliation: Institute of Optical Communication Engineering, Nanjing University, Jiangsu 210009, China. wangguanghui@nju.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Guanghui
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronic Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China. hpho@ee.cuhk.edu.hk.
authors.forename: Ho-Pui
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Ho
mesh_terms: D001709:Biotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D002498:Centrifugation / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000302:isolation & purification; D004867:Equipment Design; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D010949:Plasma / Q000737:chemistry; D010957:Plasmids / Q000302:isolation & purification
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial