emirates7 - A team of Chinese researchers has developed a power-free device that can extract plasma from whole blood with 99% efficiency, demonstrating its potential for use in point-of-care testing and medical emergencies, as reported by *China Science Daily*.

Centrifugation is the gold standard for plasma extraction in diagnostic blood testing. However, it is often unsuitable for quickly and efficiently separating small amounts of plasma, such as in point-of-care testing or research involving small animal models. Traditional centrifuges are also challenging to use in outdoor or emergency situations.

A study published in *Microsystems & Nanoengineering* describes how researchers from the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, created an efficient, power-free whole blood separation device based on negative magnetophoresis. This method uses an external magnetic field to generate a force that pushes diamagnetic particles or cells to the low point of a non-uniform magnetic field, based on their different magnetic susceptibilities.

Using magnetic arrays and biocompatible ferrofluid, the new device can adjust the volume processed per cycle from 100 microliters to 3 milliliters. It is capable of separating 3 milliliters of whole blood in as little as 1 minute with an impressive separation efficiency of 99.9%.

The researchers also conducted tests on whole blood from rats and humans, followed by plasma biomarker detection, to confirm the device's effectiveness and its wide range of applications.