Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Hand-powered ultralow-cost paper centrifuge

Abstract

In a global-health context, commercial centrifuges are expensive, bulky and electricity-powered, and thus constitute a critical bottleneck in the development of decentralized, battery-free point-of-care diagnostic devices. Here, we report an ultralow-cost (20 cents), lightweight (2 g), human-powered paper centrifuge (which we name ‘paperfuge’) designed on the basis of a theoretical model inspired by the fundamental mechanics of an ancient whirligig (or buzzer toy; 3,300 bc). The paperfuge achieves speeds of 125,000 r.p.m. (and equivalent centrifugal forces of 30,000 g), with theoretical limits predicting 1,000,000 r.p.m. We demonstrate that the paperfuge can separate pure plasma from whole blood in less than 1.5 min, and isolate malaria parasites in 15 min. We also show that paperfuge-like centrifugal microfluidic devices can be made of polydimethylsiloxane, plastic and 3D-printed polymeric materials. Ultracheap, power-free centrifuges should open up opportunities for point-of-care diagnostics in resource-poor settings and for applications in science education and field ecology.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Spinning dynamics of a paperfuge.
Figure 2: Validation of the theoretical model with experiments.
Figure 3: Paperfuge as a 20-cent diagnostic device for haematocrit analysis.
Figure 4: Paperfuge applications and design landscape.

References

  1. Mabey, D., Peeling, R. W., Ustianowski, A. & Perkins, M. D. Tropical infectious diseases: diagnostics for the developing world. Nat. Rev. Microbiol. 2, 231–240 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Al-Soud, W. A. & Rådström, P. Purification and characterization of PCR-inhibitory components in blood cells. J. Clin. Microbiol. 39, 485–493 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Singleton, J. et al. Electricity-free amplification and detection for molecular point-of-care diagnosis of HIV-1. PLoS ONE 9, e113693 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. LaBarre, P., Boyle, D., Hawkins, K. & Weigl, B. Instrument-free nucleic acid amplification assays for global health settings. Proc. SPIE 8029, 802902 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Niemz, A., Ferguson, T. M. & Boyle, D. S. Point-of-care nucleic acid testing for infectious diseases. Trends Biotechnol. 29, 240–250 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Brown, J. et al. A hand-powered, portable, low-cost centrifuge for diagnosing anemia in low-resource settings. Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. 85, 327–332 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Wong, A. P., Gupta, M., Shevkoplyas, S. S. & Whitesides, G. M. Egg beater as centrifuge: isolating human blood plasma from whole blood in resource-poor settings. Lab Chip 8, 2032–2037 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Mariella, R. Jr Sample preparation: the weak link in microfluidics-based biodetection. Biomed. Microdevices 10, 777–784 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Dineva, M. A., Mahilum-Tapay, L. & Lee, H. Sample preparation: a challenge in the development of point-of-care nucleic acid-based assays for resource-limited settings. Analyst 132, 1193–1199 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Urdea, M. et al. Requirements for high impact diagnostics in the developing world. Nature 444, 73–79 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Bohr, J. & Olsen, K. The ancient art of laying rope. Europhys. Lett. 93, 60004 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. van der Heijden, G. H. M. & Thompson, J. M. T. Helical and localised buckling in twisted rods: a unified analysis of the symmetric case. Nonlinear Dynam. 21, 71 (2000).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Ricca, R. L. The energy spectrum of a twisted flexible string under elastic relaxation. J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 28, 2335–2352 (1995).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Freund, H. J. Time control of hand movements. Prog. Brain Res. 64, 287–294 (1986).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Schlichting, H. J. & Suhr, W. The buzzer—a novel physical perspective on a classical toy. Eur. J. Phys. 31, 501–510 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Adeoye, G. O. & Nga, I. C. Comparison of quantitative buffy coat technique (QBC) with giemsa-stained thick film (GTF) for diagnosis of malaria. Parasitol. Int. 56, 308–312 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Gorkin, R. et al. Centrifugal microfluidics for biomedical applications. Lab Chip 10, 1758–1773 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Cybulski, J. S., Clements, J. & Prakash, M. Foldscope: origami-based paper microscope. PLoS ONE 9, e98781 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Martinez, A. W., Phillips, S. T., Whitesides, G. M. & Carrilho, E. Diagnostics for the developing world: microfluidic paper-based analytical devices. Anal. Chem. 82, 3–10 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Yager, P. et al. Microfluidic diagnostic technologies for global public health. Nature 442, 412–418 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Xu, S. & Nadim, A. Oscillatory counter-centrifugation. Phys. Fluids 28, 021302 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank all members of the PrakashLab for their feedback. We thank J. Cybulski and D. Ott for their discussions and engagement in the early phases of this project; F. Hol for his assistance with the soft-lithography fabrication; and K. Hong (Yeh Lab, Stanford University) for her assistance with the malaria samples. M.S.B. acknowledges fellowship support from the Stanford School of Medicine Dean’s Postdoctoral Fellowship. M.P. acknowledges support from the Pew Foundation, Moore Foundation, National Science Foundation Career Award and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) New Innovator Award. This work was supported by the Stanford Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) to Spectrum (UL1 TR001085). The CTSA programme is led by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at the NIH. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

M.S.B. and M.P. designed the research; M.S.B., B.B., C.C., G.K. and A.J. performed and analysed the research; all authors wrote the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Manu Prakash.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary discussion, figures and video captions. (PDF 4234 kb)

Video 1

High-speed dynamics of paperfuge. (MP4 14217 kb)

Video 2

Measuring rotational speed. (MP4 18475 kb)

Video 3

Twisting torque conditions. (MP4 10556 kb)

Video 4

Comparison of experiment and theory. (MP4 8818 kb)

Video 5

Separation of plasma from whole blood using paperfuge. (MP4 43381 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bhamla, M., Benson, B., Chai, C. et al. Hand-powered ultralow-cost paper centrifuge. Nat Biomed Eng 1, 0009 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-016-0009

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-016-0009

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing