New method removes nanoparticles from blood with ease

Washington: A team of US engineers has developed a new technology that uses an electrical field to easily and quickly isolate drug-delivery nanoparticles from the blood.

The electronic chip can also serve as a tool to separate and recover nanoparticles from other complex fluids for medical, environmental and industrial applications.

Nanoparticles, which are generally one thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair, are difficult to separate from plasma - the liquid component of blood - owing to their small size and low density.

Traditional methods to remove nanoparticles from plasma samples typically involve diluting plasma. These methods either alter the normal behaviour of the nanoparticles or cannot be applied to some of the most common nanoparticle types.