Spiral inertial microfluidics in the isolation and capture of sub-micron particles for liquid biopsy

Liquid biopsies are emerging as a fast and non-invasive method to diagnose and monitor a variety of diseases. One option for prostate cancer detection is capturing cancer specific exosomes from urine. Yet, exosomes isolation is difficult because they are sub-micron entities within a complex mixture of cells and metabolites also present in urine. Here, we present the use of spiral inertial microfluidics with capture reservoirs as a passive separation method of micron sized particles followed by nanoparticles surface immobilization. The capture reservoir integrated downstream of the spiral contains a plasma polymerized polyoxazoline coating acting as a capture and sensing platform.