MicroPREP: New advances in sample purification

Uploaded on March 14, 2019

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MicroPREP: New advances in sample purification

2019-03-14 - Daniel Brassard, research officer at the National Research Council of Canada, explains MicroPREP sample preparation technology and its possible benefits. (Credits: Canadian Space Agency, National Research Council Canada)

Daniel Brassard: What we’re developing for MicroPREP is a new microfluidic platform. It’s a new platform for handling liquids that provides a much higher level of control and complexity than what was available in the past.

Even though astronauts could be trained to do biological testing in space, they generally don’t have enough time to do the number of tests required. So essentially, this technology is designed to automate the process of handling liquids.

It all happens inside a small cartridge that’s about the size of a credit card, that has channels and reservoirs. Once there are fluids inside, the device will make them automatically flow to the right place.

All of this will have a huge impact on Earth because it will become possible to perform many tests in environments where no laboratory is available.

So it’s a nice surprise to be able to work on something that not only has benefits for space applications, but that also has tremendous benefits here on Earth.

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