Electric chip pulls unchanged nanoparticles out of blood

A technique developed by medical researchers to separate nanoparticles from blood plasma could have extended applications in industry, for separating the minute particles from other complex fluids, a concern across many sectors including environmental technologies.

The very small size of nanoparticles, and their tendency to exist at low density in solutions, makes them difficult to separate. This is a particular concern when the nanoparticles have some pharmaceutical effect, as researchers would like to be able to pull them out of the blood plasma for study, for example to see how proteins in the blood bind to their surfaces and affect their efficacy.

“We were interested in a fast and easy way to take these nanoparticles out of plasma so we could find out what’s going on at their surfaces and redesign them to work more effectively in blood,” said Michael Heller, a nanoengineering professor at the Jacobs School of Engineering of the University of California in San Diego, who led the research.