Acoustofluidic thin-film actuated chip for exosome separation from blood

Introduction

AcouSome is a consortium stemming from the ongoing EIC-FET Open BioWings project, and consists of four of the BioWings project partners (AcouSort AB, DTU, Lund University, and Day One Srl). AcouSome has the ambition to build on the disruptive technology of thin film actuated acoustofluidics developed in BioWings. The results obtained in BioWings will be combined with a polymer acoustofluidics technology developed in the ongoing Eurostars AcouPlast project to fabricate a polymer-based microfluidic chip for separating and enriching exosomes from blood for use in the next generation of point-of-care diagnostics.

Importance of Exosomes

Exosomes are nano-sized extracellular vesicles that are released by a significant number of different cell types. They are considered an important biomarker, with high diagnostic potential in a wide range of diseases, including:

1. Different kinds of cancer (glioblastoma, melanoma, prostate cancer, and many others)
2. Hepatitis
3. Kidney diseases
4. Cardiovascular diseases
5. Liver diseases

Therefore, there is an increasing interest in exosomes as a powerful diagnostic tool. Having the opportunity to isolate and analyze exosomes from a routine blood test is crucial for early detection of a wide range of diseases.

AcouSome Chip Functionality

In the AcouSome chip, exosomes will be separated and enriched from blood by combining two steps already developed by Lund University and AcouSort.

1. First, plasma will be separated from blood by flowing the blood through a microfluidic channel, pushing the cells towards the centerline of the channel using ultrasound, and subsequently splitting the cell and plasma flows.
2. Exosomes will then be trapped and enriched from the plasma flow using a localized acoustic field.

The acoustofluidic chip will be driven using thin-film actuators as invented together with DTU in the BioWings project. The exosome separation cartridge is intended for sample preparation in research labs and future diagnostic point-of-care instruments.