We are focusing on developing methods for isolating extracellular veiscles from biofluids (such as blood plasma and cerebrospinal fluid). Using a localised acoustic field in microfluidic channel we have demonstrated that microparticles can be trapped in packed clusters and held in place against flow. We demonstrate that a cluster of polystryene or silica microparticles scatter sound which can enable nanoparticles to be trapped and enriched in the interstitial space. This technique allows us to isolate biological nanoparticles such as extracellular vesicles from complex biofluids, which is an effective, under 10 min, pre-processing step for downsteam analysis. Our system can also handle very small volumes of biofluids, as little as 8 µL of plasma or 25 µL of CSF, making great use of biobank samples.

As part of my doctoral studies, I have collaborated with Clinical Memory researchers to invesitgate the role of extracellular vesicles in the transport of biomarkers such as p-tau181 and p-tau217.