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Abstract
Norovirus elution and concentration from complex food matrices is difficult, often resulting in inefficient recovery and inhibitor introduction in downstream molecular detection. Membrane-based Electro-separation (MBES) is a technique to exchange charged particles through a size-specific dialysis membrane from one solution to another using electric current as the driving force. Norovirus has a net negative surface charge in a neutrally buffered environment, so when placed in an electric field, it can move towards the anode (positive electrode) by electrostatic force, which can be separated from the cathodic compartment where sample is placed, and then collected in the anodic compartment for downstream detection. A MBES device was designed, developed and evaluated to concentrate and recover murine norovirus (MNV-1) from phosphate buffer. As high as 30.8% of MNV-1 migrated from a 3.5 ml sample chamber to a 1.5 ml collection chamber across 1 m separation membrane when 20 V was applied for 30 min using sodium phosphate with 0.01% SDS (pH 7.5) as the electrolyte.