Abstract

Microfluidic On-Demand Harvesting of Therapeutic Exosomes

Mei He, Assistant Professor, Kansas State University

The finding of exosomes opens new opportunities for developing nature, non-toxic therapeutic delivery systems. Exosomes play important biological roles via transferring selectively enriched proteins, RNAs, and mitochondrial DNA. The nano-sized exosomes are highly biocompatible with intrinsic payload and exhibit much stronger antigen loading flexibility, compared to other polymer nano-platforms. In spite of the significant roles in therapeutics and diagnostics, the study and development of the utility of exosomes is hampered by substantial technical difficulties in obtaining sufficient and pure immunogenic exosomes. Current production protocols (e.g, ultracentrifugation and filtration) are un-scalable, often labor-intensive and time-intensive, and in low-yield and purity (< 25%). In this work, we report a versatile, scalable microfluidic approach for processing exosomes with precise control and specificity, and on-demand harvesting. Current microfluidic exosome isolation approaches either handle limited quality of exosomes in microliter scale, or the processed exosomes are bound to solid surface/particles and unable to stay intact. We report continuous-flow, light-triggered on-demand harvesting of exosomes over milliliter scale of volumes. We foresee that microfluidic technology will provide game changer roles for exploring the utility of exosomes in therapeutics.