Track-etched magnetic micropores for immunomagnetic isolation of pathogens.

A microfluidic chip is developed to selectively isolate magnetically tagged cells from heterogeneous suspensions, the track-etched magnetic micropore (TEMPO) filter. The TEMPO consists of an ion track-etched polycarbonate membrane coated with soft magnetic film (Ni20 Fe80 ). In the presence of an applied field, provided by a small external magnet, the filter becomes magnetized and strong magnetic traps are created along the edges of the micro-pores. In contrast to conventional microfluidics, fluid flows vertically through the porous membrane allowing large flow rates while keeping the capture rate high and the chip compact. By utilizing track-etching instead of conventional semiconductor fabrication, TEMPOs can be fabricated with microscale pores over large areas A > 1 cm(2) at little cost (< 5 C| cm(-) (2) ). To demonstrate the utility of this platform, a TEMPO with 5 μm pore size is used to selectively and rapidly isolate immunomagnetically targeted Escherichia coli from heterogeneous suspensions, demonstrating enrichment of ζ > 500 at a flow rate of Φ = 5 mL h(-1) . Furthermore, the large density of micropores (ρ = 10(6) cm(-2) ) allows the TEMPO to sort E. coli from unprocessed environmental and clinical samples, as the blockage of a few pores does not significantly change the behavior of the device.