Optical Fractionation of Blood
December 6, 2011 | Terry Sharrer
During World War II, Edwin Cohn developed the blood fractionation method that separated serum albumin, saving thousands of lives. Ever since, military labs have continuously developed improved methods for blood fractionation, and their latest achievement is a process scientists, Dr. Sean Hart, Dr. Colin G. Hebert and Mr. Alex Terray at the Naval Research Lab, discovered for separating cells and blood components with lasers-called optical pressure fractionation. Laser energy scatters protons creating the separation pressure. This piece mentions how this approach might be used to detect blood-borne pathogens, but presumably it also could separate protein biomarkers indicating disease states. MORE