Microfluidic selective electrochemical lysis (μSEL) for isolating prokaryotes from biological samples

We are developing a microfluidic Selective Electrochemical Lysis (μSEL) to differentiate cell types based on their biophysical lysing mechanisms. This method is being applied towards the isolation and identification of bacteria in whole blood. We show that prokaryotes have a significantly different response to electrochemical lysis than eukaryotes, and captitalize on this difference for diagnostic applications. Conventional diagnosis of blood infections such as septicemia and menigitis require a blood culture, which can take up to three days. The μSEL method introduced here concentrates all cell types from the sample, and subsequently isolates the prokaryotes using locally generated hydroxide in microfluidic chamber.