News Report: In response to the serious challenge of microbial contamination in blood products, Professor Xing Dongming's team from our university'sCancer Instituteand the Collaborative Innovation Center for Medical Engineering Research, in collaboration with Qingdao Haier Biomedical, have developed an integrated technology for rapid microbial collection and detection. This project has received support from theKey Research and Development Project of Shandong Province. Recently, two key studies have achieved significant breakthroughs, with the results published in the prestigious international journals“Journal of Hazardous Materials”and“Journal of Colloid and Interface Science”.

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The safety of blood products is a critical issue affecting countless families. Regulations require regular microbial contamination testing of the storage environments for blood and biological products.Generally,the classic method for microbialmonitoris natural sedimentation, which has two major problems: first, it has a "risk blind spot" as it takes at least 48 hours to culture and confirm results, creating a time window of risk; second, it is "inaccurate," as counting colonies does not accurately reflect the actualsituationof microbial contamination. These issues pose significant risks to the timely detection and management of blood product contamination.

Can a "fast, good, and accurate" microbial contamination detection method be established? Toachievethisgoal, the research team conducted on-site investigations in blood product storage facilities, analyzed the issues, and established a joint R&D collaboration with Haier Biomedical, a leading company in China's blood product storage industry. They creatively proposed a new technical strategy of "green filtration + micro-sampling + rapid quantitative detection" for microorganisms and established three key technologies.

First, they addressed how to ensure that the captured microorganisms "live well and live long" to guarantee detection accuracy and sensitivity. Through"dualgreen"selection of raw materials and processes, the research team successfully created a "greencapture" biofilm for microorganisms, ensuring both the quantity and quality of captured microorganisms. Comparative studies with the industry benchmark, Sartorius biofilms from Germany, showed a 1.5-fold increase in microbial survival rate.

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Second, they solved how to improve the capture efficiency of microorganisms, reducing the"missedones". Through process exploration and phase separation technology, the team developed membrane materials with a honeycomb-like cross-linked network structure, which have good air permeability and high structural stability. The microbial capture rate isabout3.2 timesthanthat of commercial gel filtration membranes, solving the key technical challenge of high-efficiency collection.

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Third, they addressed multiple technical challenges in rapid quantitative detection of microorganisms. By exploring rapid dissolution, efficient elution, and extraction technologies for biofilms, the research team maximized the transfer and collection capability of microbial samples. They also explored the compatible ATP bioluminescence method, ultimately achieving rapid quantitative detection of captured microorganisms, reducing detection time to 1/288th of the traditional method.

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Comparative studies with Sartorius' related technologies and products showed that the research team's approach has significant advantages in terms of air microbial capture rate, survival rate, and rapid quantitative detection, indicating great potential for industrial application. The project has completed proof-of-concept product research and applied for multiple patents, with support from theKey Research and Development Project of Shandong Province. Professor Xing Dongming's team and Haier Biomedical are advancing the industrialization of the technology, accelerating the application of original research results to serve society.

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Qingdao University and its affiliated hospital are the primary affiliations for the papers, with Qingdao Haier Biomedical Co., Ltd. as the second affiliation. The papers' co-first authors are Dr. Yan Saisai and graduate student Liu Qing from the Precision Oncology Research Institute of Qingdao University. Team members include Liu Zhanjie, Liu Rundong, Gao Wensheng, Jia Qiuzhi, Liu Xinlin, Yan Mingzhe, XingKunyue, Guo Han, Jiang Wenhao, Ma Xinyue, Xu Junlin, and Zhang Xinyi. The corresponding author is Professor Xing Dongming. The research was supported by grants from Qingdao City’s High-level Talent Team for Scientific and Technological Innovation,Key Research and Development Project of Shandong Province,and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.