Paper-based Devices for Isolation and Characterization of Extracellular Vesicles

The overall goal of this procedure is to isolate extracellular vesicles using a paper-based platform. This is accomplished by first laminating with two polystyrene sheets with circular cellulose, paper cutouts aligned on an array of registered through holes. The second step is to chemically conjugate molecules that would bind extracellular vesicles to the paper test zone.

Next, the biological sample can be pipetted directly onto the paper test zone, and extracellular vesicles are isolated after the rinse step. The final step is to characterize, captured extracellular vesicles using electron microscopy, Eliza or transcriptomic analysis. Ultimately, subsets of extracellular vesicles from as small as 10 microliter serum samples can be purified and concentrated.