We’ve developed qDBS technology, a microfluidic technology that offers a solution for easy and accurate Self Sampling.

All Capitainer blood sampling cards are built on our qDBS technology. It uses a combination of paper, polymer microfluidics and thin water-soluble membranes to meter a fixed volume of blood. After applying blood to the inlet, a metering channel in the device is automatically filled and the blood is transferred to a pre-cut DBS paper disc.

In the 10µL version, one blood drop is added to the inlet and a double valve solution is applied where a thin dissolvable membrane opens up after blood application and removes excessive blood at the inlet. Subsequently, a second membrane opens up , allowing for transfer of the metered blood volume onto the sample collection disk at the outlet.

The 50µL version applies a single valve solution with another filling mechanism, to allow application of multiple drops.

The sample is allowed to dry forming a high quality DBS sample suitable for quantitative analysis.

The metering mechanism employing thin dissolvable films was first demonstrated by G. Lenk et al 

In Capitainer®B a double valve solution is applied to discard excess blood and deliver the metered 10µL to the sample disc

Manual Pipetting of Blood vs Capitainer® Collection