title: Elasto-inertial microfluidics for bacteria separation from whole blood for sepsis diagnostics.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Bloodstream infections (BSI) remain a major challenge with high mortality rate, with an incidence that is increasing worldwide. Early treatment with appropriate therapy can reduce BSI-related morbidity and mortality. However, despite recent progress in molecular based assays, complex sample preparation steps have become critical roadblock for a greater expansion of molecular assays. Here, we report a size based, label-free, bacteria separation from whole blood using elasto-inertial microfluidics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In elasto-inertial microfluidics, the viscoelastic flow enables size based migration of blood cells into a non-Newtonian solution, while smaller bacteria remain in the streamline of the blood sample entrance and can be separated. We first optimized the flow conditions using particles, and show continuous separation of 5 μm particles from 2 μm at a yield of 95% for 5 µm particle and 93% for 2 µm particles at respective outlets. Next, bacteria were continuously separated at an efficiency of 76% from undiluted whole blood sample.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We demonstrate separation of bacteria from undiluted while blood using elasto-inertial microfluidics. The label-free, passive bacteria preparation method has a great potential for downstream phenotypic and molecular analysis of bacteria.
authors.affiliation: Division of Proteomics & Nano-biotechnology, School of Biotechnology, Royal Institute of Technology KTH, SciLifeLab Tomtebodavägen 23, 17165, Solna, Sweden.
authors.forename: Muhammad Asim
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Faridi
authors.affiliation: Division of Proteomics & Nano-biotechnology, School of Biotechnology, Royal Institute of Technology KTH, SciLifeLab Tomtebodavägen 23, 17165, Solna, Sweden.
authors.forename: Harisha
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ramachandraiah
authors.affiliation: Division of Proteomics & Nano-biotechnology, School of Biotechnology, Royal Institute of Technology KTH, SciLifeLab Tomtebodavägen 23, 17165, Solna, Sweden.
authors.forename: Indradumna
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Banerjee
authors.affiliation: Division of Proteomics & Nano-biotechnology, School of Biotechnology, Royal Institute of Technology KTH, SciLifeLab Tomtebodavägen 23, 17165, Solna, Sweden.
authors.forename: Sahar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ardabili
authors.affiliation: Division of Proteomics & Nano-biotechnology, School of Biotechnology, Royal Institute of Technology KTH, SciLifeLab Tomtebodavägen 23, 17165, Solna, Sweden.
authors.forename: Sergey
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zelenin
authors.affiliation: Division of Proteomics & Nano-biotechnology, School of Biotechnology, Royal Institute of Technology KTH, SciLifeLab Tomtebodavägen 23, 17165, Solna, Sweden. aman.russom@scilifelab.se.
authors.forename: Aman
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0242-358X
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Russom
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D001773:Blood Cells / Q000166:cytology; D004548:Elasticity; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D044085:Microfluidics / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D010316:Particle Size; D018805:Sepsis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes
keywords: Elasto-inertial microfluidics; Micro particle separation; Sample preparation; Sepsis