Development of a forward osmosis process for the Platelet enrichment of Plasma – Plasmotic

The challenging objectives of the project are to develop a new process to enrich plasma with platelets and thus produce platelet rich plasma (PRP). PRP injection is an important therapy used to accelerate the healing of tendons, ligaments or joints (Arthritis Therapy). The project aims to develop a new way to produce PRP using the process of forward osmosis. The missing elements for such a new PRP production process is first to find a good couple of membrane properties and drawing solution. A fully optimized membrane will be developed in the project to meet the required properties namely: i) good biocompatibility ii) a layer ensuring retention of drawing colloids iii) low resistance to the osmotic flow and mitigation of concentration polarization and adsorption iv) optimized selectivity for blood components -some components such as platelets have to be enriched while others, such as salts, should pass-. It will be also necessary to develop the process around the membrane and to test and optimize a prototype integrating a forward osmosis module with this new membrane for PRP production. Compared to pressurized membrane processes, such a process can be considered milder for treating sensitive biological fluids such as blood. Indeed, osmotic flows are often involved for these purposes in natural processes of living organisms. The positioning of the project, based on a biomimetic approach, is original and only a few research groups are studying this type of development for this biomedical application.