Introduction This post will describe the preliminary work I have completed using size exclusion chromatography (SEC) for EV enrichment. We are ultimately interested in interrogating serum EV biomarkers using CAD-LB, however, the presence of protein and lipoprotein contaminants reduces the capacity for EV capture (~104) on NPN membranes and may hinder the analysis of rare…
Introduction This post is another update in my series of experiments aiming to both characterize and validate the CAD-LB platform. We have now shifted our focus to validating CAD-LB biomarker detection which will be done using multiple experimental models. The most recent model, and the topic of this post, uses HUVEC cells to validate the…
Introduction In this post I will review work I have completed to further characterize the CAD-LB platform. In this set of experiments combinations of nanoparticle species were used to define colocalization limitations. More specifically, two nanoparticle species each labeled with a unique fluorescent dye (red or blue) were used to simulate pan EV and antibody…
Introduction This post is meant to serve as an update for some of the more recent work completed on the CAD-LB (catch and display for liquid biopsy) platform. The CAD-LB is intended to be used as a digital biomarker assay for interrogating small extracellular vesicles (sEVs). Since transitioning our assay to the µSIM device we…
Introduction This post is meant to introduce the new NPN-enabled slide-based devices produced by Ibidi. These devices feature an NPN membrane and microfluidic channels positioned perpendicular to one another formed by PSA and COP layers (Figure 1). Channels above and below the membrane allow for flow-based experiments including tangential flow filtration (TFF) such that biofluids…
Introduction & Motivation A subset of cancer cells has mutations that generate proteins recognized by the immune system as foreign, triggering the immune-mediated clearance of those cells. To avoid this fate, cancer cells can evolve mechanisms to suppress this antitumor response via the regulation of immune checkpoint pathways. Immune checkpoints describe mechanisms that are in…
ALine Capture Device In this post I will go over some of my recent work that is a continuation of Kilean’s research concerning extracellular vesicle (EV) capture and characterization. In the past, this was done using a tangential flow filtration (Figure 1) scheme and clamped devices featuring nanoporous membranes (Figure 2). These devices are straightforward…
Introduction This post will detail the work completed in the last chapter of my Thesis. The overarching goal of this chapter was to perform dialysis on whole blood utilizing a serial-separation system. This system would first: generate plasma from whole blood and second: remove uremic toxins from plasma employing microporous and nanoporous membranes, respectively. Conducting…
Introduction & Background Parylene is a polymer stemming from the chemical-vapor-deposited poly(p-xylylene) group. This polymer treatment is applied as a gas which allows complete and uniform coatings of substrates with even nanoscale features. Parylene treatment is widely used as it offers a chemically and biologically inert layer with excellent electrical properties, and additionally acts as…
This post is meant to conclude the work that I have completed this summer with the double slot single pass devices; recently I have conducted additional experiments and collected ultrafiltration data. In my previous post, “Single Slot Inverted-Chip and Double Slot: Single-Pass Dialysis Devices” https://trace-bmps.org/single-slot-inverted-chip-and-double-slot-single-pass-dialysis-devices/ I was exploring how various analyte / dialysate flow rate…