Automated modular bacterial filtering system with embeddable microfluidic chips

Abstract

This paper introduces an automated bacterial filtering system which has three unique advantages comparing to current available systems. Firstly, it is an automatic system which minimizes the human interaction with potentially hazardous bacterial samples, eliminates human errors and makes it suitable for frequent bacterial filtering procedures. Secondly, it provides an interface between milliliter volumes of sample and microfluidic chips requiring samples in microliter volumes. Thirdly, both bacteria collected on the filter and filtrate passed through the filter can be collected for analysis. The modular design of the system provides a large variety of filters for different applications.