University of Georgia Research Foundation, Inc.

Yang Liu

Leidong Mao

Wujun Zhao

The present disclosure provides devices, kits, and methods for focusing/enriching and/or separating/sorting submicron size particles, including biological entities such as exosomes and other submicron size extracellular vesicles. Devices, kits, and methods of the present disclosure utilize ferrohydrodynamic manipulation to focus populations of submicron particles into a stream for enrichment and/or further sort various sub-populations of submicron particles based on size differences.

Devices, kits, and methods for label-free focusing and/or separation of sub-micron particles

A variety of devices, systems, kits, and methods are provided for separating or enriching circulating tumor cells in a biological sample such as whole blood. In some aspects, the devices are multi-stage devices including at least a filtering stage, and two separation stages for ferrohydrodynamic separation of magnetically labelled white blood cells and for marker-independent and size-independent focusing of magnetically labeled particles so as to separate or enrich unlabeled rare cells in the biological sample. The devices and methods are, in some aspects, capable of high throughput in excess of 6 milliliters per hour while achieving high separation (&#x3e;97%) of the unlabeled rare cells.

Growing community of inventors

Athens, GA, United States of America

Yang Liu