NEW MICROEXTRACTION DEVICE AUTOMATED

The determination of biomarkers in biological fluids using extraction techniques before measuring is a common practice in laboratories. Conventional extraction techniques usually require large amounts of solvent or sorbent as well as large amounts of sample. Microextraction techniques, of which there are numerous modalities, are based on the same fundamentals as conventional techniques. However, although the quantities of the extractant phase have been drastically reduced to a few microlitres (solvent) or milligrams (sorbent), the same level of reduction has not been achieved for the sample, which is still in the order of millilitres. In terms of process automation, there are no known commercial automated devices for dispersive microsolid-phase extraction techniques, so this invention could be widely accepted in the scientific community. Researchers at the UV have developed a device for the microextraction of compounds in small volume liquid samples and solving the limitations of current techniques. With the device it is possible to carry out the extraction of traces of compounds of interest in small samples (micro-samples), such as some biological fluids, in an automated way and with a portable device.