Optofluidic Force Induction (OF2i)

By BioNanoNet

A novel technology for high sensitivity (nano) particle characterisation and manipulation on μ-fluidic chips for pharmaceutical and material research applications as well as medical diagnostics. Size, aspect ratio and aggregation behavior are one of the key factors affecting/defining the functionality of nanoparticles. Undefined and heterogenic particle populations demand for accurate analytic tools and advanced manipulation equipment to reduce unwanted side effects (and maximize desired effects). Since the discovery was made that photons can be used to manipulate particles (1), research efforts have focused on different applications using this approach (2, 3). The patent protected OF2i principle combines microfluidics and highly defined optical forces (Figure 1) to influence the fluidic motion of thousands of particles simultaneously, allowing sample-observation in real time and whole-sample scans. Through advanced motion evaluation, relevant particle parameters such as size, concentration, molecular weight and basic shape information (aspect ratio) can be derived. To exhibit the systems performance, protamin with CpG from Ovalbumin complexed proticles (vaccine) in the size range of 90 to 120nm were investigated. The sample was characterized via Dynamic Light Scattering (Malvern Zetasizer©) and Nano particle Tracking Analysis (Malvern NanoSight©) and subsequently analyzed through OF2i for aggregate determination and purification (Figure 2). Aggregates should be monitored, as they are inactive in vaccine solutions. Although DLS and NTA did hardly show any aggregates above 400nm, OF2i was able to detect 1.13% aggregates (from ~≥ 400nm up to 5μm) and effectively purify the samples in a fifth of the NTA scan duration. The OF2i technique can be used as a rapid analysis, characterisation and fine-tunable contactless filtration method of nanoscaled objects for statistically relevant online quality controls or routine lab tasks in pharmaceutical and medical diagnostics as well as in material research. Reference project: Project LightMatters