TY - JOUR T1 - A radial pillar device (RAPID) for continuous and high-throughput separation of multi-sized particles JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/197046 SP - 197046 AU - Ninad Mehendale AU - Oshin Sharma AU - Claudy D’Costa AU - Debjani Paul Y1 - 2017/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/10/02/197046.abstract N2 - Pillar-based microfluidic sorting devices are preferred for isolation of rare cells due to their simple designs and passive operation. Dead-end pillar filters can efficiently capture large rare cells, such as, circulating tumor cells (CTCs), nucleated red blood cells (NRBCs), etc., but they get clogged easily. Cross flow filters are preferred for smaller rare particles (e.g. separating bacteria from blood), but they need additional buffer inlets and a large device footprint for efficient operation. We have designed a new microparticle separation device i.e. Radial Pillar Device (RAPID) that combines the advantages of dead-end and cross flow filters. RAPID can simultaneously isolate both large and small rare particles from a mixed population, while functioning for several hours without clogging. We have achieved simultaneous separation of 10µm and 2µm polystyrene particles from a mixture of 2 µm, 7 µm and 10 µm beads. RAPID achieved average separation purity and recovery in excess of ⟂ 90%. The throughput of our device (⟂ 3ml/min) is 10 and 100 times higher compared to cross flow and dead-end filters respectively, thereby justifying the name RAPID. ER -