Acoustofluidic Blood Component Sample Preparation and Processing in Medical Applications

This chapter describes recent developments within microscale acoustofluidics where applications targeting unmet needs in the life sciences and clinical medicine are in focus. A brief overview of the fundamental physics describes the conditions under which biological micro- and nanoparticles can be manipulated in microscale using acoustic forces. This sets the stage for the subsequent sections that describe a range of acoustofluidic unit operations that can be utilized for realizing biological and medical applications. It is then followed by a variety of biomedical applications ranging from blood component separation, rare cell isolation and cell processing in cell therapy, as well as isolation of bacteria or extracellular vesicles for diagnostics and biomarker discovery. The chapter is rounded off by organoid and tissue engineering and more exotic applications such as sperm selection and nebulizers.