Abstract: Disclosed are methods and devices for interfacing to or interacting with the flow of liquid passing into or through lateral-flow assays and related paper- or membrane-based in-vitro diagnostic testing platforms. This is done for the purpose of improving their performance, sensitivity, accuracy, repeatability, degree of multiplexing, and/or level of quantitation, and/or reducing their inherent limitations while maintaining, in large part, their simplicity, cost effectiveness, and ease of use. New methods are disclosed for pre-sample purification, aliquoting, sequential liquid delivery, flow control and other functions that are largely automatic and require no action on the part of the user.

Abstract: A new method is disclosed for extracting plasma from whole blood and metering the amount of plasma to an exact volume for dispensing into a diagnostic test, in a fully automatic and self-contained device. The device can be used in resource limited settings by unskilled users to facilitate sophisticated medical diagnostic testing outside of a hospital, clinic or laboratory.

Abstract: Many hand-held diagnostics are limited in their functionality due to the challenging physics associated with small dimensional systems. An example of this is capillary forces in hydrophilic systems, such as the tight retention of liquid passing through a small pore filtration membrane, or capillary force driven microfluidics where, to keep liquid flowing the dimensions of the system become so small that the flow rates are too low to be useful, or the manufacturing of such devices becomes uneconomical. This disclosure details methods to ‘reset’ the capillary force condition to avoid the requirement of transient pressure spikes associated with the breakthrough pressure of small pore membranes, and avoid the necessity of extremely small microfluidic channels, which can be useful in applications such as filtration of whole blood to plasma using only suction pressure or passive capillary pressure.

Abstract: Disclosed is a device for extracting a filtrate from a liquid sample that includes one or more filtration membranes and, in physical contact with a portion of the downstream surface(s) of the filtration membrane(s), a soluble matrix possessing a capillary drawing force sufficient to draw filtrate through the at least one filtration membrane and into the soluble matrix, causing the soluble matrix to at least partially dissolve or disintegrate in the filtrate, whereby the filtrate is released. Various configurations, including device configurations having two filtration membranes with a soluble matrix in between or having a tubular filtration membrane at least partially surrounding or surrounded by a soluble matrix are described.

Abstract: A new method is disclosed for extracting plasma from whole blood and metering the amount of plasma to an exact volume for dispensing into a diagnostic test, in a fully automatic and self-contained device. The device can be used in resource limited settings by unskilled users to facilitate sophisticated medical diagnostic testing outside of a hospital, clinic or laboratory.

Abstract: Many hand-held diagnostics are limited in their functionality due to the challenging physics associated with small dimensional systems. An example of this is capillary forces in hydrophilic systems, such as the tight retention of liquid passing through a small pore filtration membrane, or capillary force driven microfluidics where, to keep liquid flowing the dimensions of the system become so small that the flow rates are too low to be useful, or the manufacturing of such devices becomes uneconomical. This disclosure details methods to ‘reset’ the capillary force condition to avoid the requirement of transient pressure spikes associated with the breakthrough pressure of small pore membranes, and avoid the necessity of extremely small microfluidic channels, which can be useful in applications such as filtration of whole blood to plasma using only suction pressure or passive capillary pressure.

Abstract: Many hand-held diagnostics are limited in their functionality due to the challenging physics associated with small dimensional systems. An example of this is capillary forces in hydrophilic systems, such as the tight retention of liquid passing through a small pore filtration membrane, or capillary force driven microfluidics where, to keep liquid flowing the dimensions of the system become so small that the flow rates are too low to be useful, or the manufacturing of such devices becomes uneconomical. This disclosure details methods to ‘reset’ the capillary force condition to avoid the requirement of transient pressure spikes associated with the breakthrough pressure of small pore membranes, and avoid the necessity of extremely small microfluidic channels, which can be useful in applications such as filtration of whole blood to plasma using only suction pressure or passive capillary pressure.

Abstract: Many hand-held diagnostics are limited in their functionality due to the challenging physics associated with small dimensional systems. An example of this is capillary forces in hydrophilic systems, such as the tight retention of liquid passing through a small pore filtration membrane, or capillary force driven microfluidics where, to keep liquid flowing the dimensions of the system become so small that the flow rates are too low to be useful, or the manufacturing of such devices becomes uneconomical. This disclosure details methods to ‘reset’ the capillary force condition to avoid the requirement of transient pressure spikes associated with the breakthrough pressure of small pore membranes, and avoid the necessity of extremely small microfluidic channels, which can be useful in applications such as filtration of whole blood to plasma using only suction pressure or passive capillary pressure.