Systems and methods for specimen processing and storage

Abstract

A method including receiving a specimen comprising a carrier, a first target species, and a first component and storing at least a portion of the carrier and the first target species in a storage media by self-driven filtering of the specimen in the storage media, wherein the storage media comprises porous superabsorbent polymer (PSAP) beads. The PSAP beads provide for fast and self-driven microfiltration of biofluid samples. The treatment effectively separates small analytical targets (e.g., glucose, catalase, and bacteriophage) and large undesired components (e.g., bacteria and blood cells) in the biofluids by capturing the former inside and excluding the latter outside the PSAP beads. The treatment can reduce sample volume, self-aliquot the liquid sample, avoid microbial contamination, separate plasma from blood cells, stabilize target species inside the beads, and enable long-term storage at room temperature.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.