• Universitat de València

The determination of biomarkers in biological fluids using extraction techniques prior to their measurament is common lab practice.

The conventional extraction techniques usually require great quantities of solvent or sorbent, as well as a large sample.

The microextraction techniques, for which multiple methods exists, are based on the same fundamentals as the conventional techniques. Nevertheless, and even though the quantities from the extraction phase have been drastically reduced to a few micro litres (solvent) or miligrams (sorbent), the same levels of reduction haven't been achieved for the samples, which still are in the mililitre scale.

Regarding the automatisation of the process, there are no known commercial automatised devices of dispersive microsolid-phase extraction techniques (DMSPE), thus making its use a widely accepted technique withing the scientific community.

Staff members from the Universitat de València overcame current technical limitations and developed a microextraction device for compounds in liquid samples of reduced volume. With the device, it is possible to extract traces of compounds of interest in samples of reduced size (micro-samples), some biological fluids for example, automatically and from a portable device.

This invention could have its application in analysis laboratories, specially in clinical analysis that requires small volume samples and procedures with minimum sample handling. The invention will be of use in hospital laboratories, universities and research centres.

The invention presents the following advantages:

• DMSPE automatisation (dispersive microsolid-phase extraction), with less involvement of the operator, thus reducing the times.
• DMSPE application to the microsamples.
• Low solvent and sorbent consumption.
• Low generation of waste and, therefore, less need to process them, thus reducing the ecological footprint.
• Reduction of cross-contamination risk between samples.
• Portability, as it has miniature elements integrated in a small mount.
• Low production cost.

• Patent applied