{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"institution":[{"name":"bioRxiv"}],"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,24]],"date-time":"2026-06-24T05:48:23Z","timestamp":1782280103249,"version":"3.54.5"},"posted":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,13]]},"group-title":"Bioengineering","reference-count":36,"publisher":"openRxiv","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,13]],"date-time":"2025-05-13T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1747094400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.biorxiv.org\/about\/FAQ#license"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the United States National Institutes of Health","award":["7DP2GM149553-02"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["7DP2GM149553-02"]}]},{"name":"National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program","award":["DGE2140739"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["DGE2140739"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,13]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                  Babesiosis \u2013 a globally emerging tick-borne infectious disease primarily caused by the intraerythrocytic piroplasm parasite,\n                  <jats:italic>Babesia microti<\/jats:italic>\n                  \u2013 has traditionally been studied using animal models such as mice. Compared to animal models, microfluidic-based models offer advantages, including direct analysis of human samples (such as patient blood), enhanced assay capacity (including physical\/optical access, consistency, and throughput), low costs, and easy adoption. Here, we report an open microfluidic platform named \u201c\u03bc-Blood\u201d for monitoring\n                  <jats:italic>B. microti<\/jats:italic>\n                  infection dynamics\n                  <jats:italic>in vitro<\/jats:italic>\n                  . Compared to other microfluidic-based models, \u03bc-Blood allows direct examination of infected and uninfected whole blood without preprocessing steps like blood dilution or cell isolation, minimizing observer artifacts and preserving the natural whole blood microenvironment. The system enables extended (days-long) monitoring of infection dynamics, including parasite identification, parasitemia measurement, and parasite-host cell interactions, using label-free phase contrast and fluorescence confocal microscopy. With its open microfluidic configuration, \u03bc-Blood provides an\n                  <jats:italic>in vitro<\/jats:italic>\n                  model for studying blood-borne infections while maintaining integrity of the whole blood microenvironment.\n                <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1101\/2025.05.07.652765","type":"posted-content","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,13]],"date-time":"2025-05-13T18:25:22Z","timestamp":1747160722000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["<i>In vitro<\/i>\n                  monitoring of\n                  <i>Babesia microti<\/i>\n                  infection dynamics in whole blood microenvironments"],"prefix":"10.64898","author":[{"given":"Chao","family":"Li","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Emily G.","family":"Bache","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Amy L.","family":"Apgar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Danielle M.","family":"Tufts","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA"},{"name":"Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0110, South Africa"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3018-5419","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Tagbo H.R.","family":"Niepa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA"},{"name":"Department of Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"54368","reference":[{"key":"2026041121362581000_2025.05.07.652765v1.1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijpara.2018.11.007"},{"key":"2026041121362581000_2025.05.07.652765v1.2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"A. 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