Integrated disc-fluidic platform for high-throughput extracellular vesicle processing in liquid biopsy

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) represent a promising class of cancer biomarkers, enabling repeated and minimally invasive access to tumor-derived molecular information. A major challenge, however, is that EVs are embedded in complex and variable biological matrices, making the purification and standardized processing of these particles essential for reliable clinical analysis. Existing EV isolation methods are slow, labor-intensive, and prone to variability; limitations that hinder widespread adoption in translational cancer research. Here, we present an integrated centrifugal disc-fluidics platform designed for automated, high-throughput EV processing. The system incorporates key innovative features, including plasma separation, chromatographic EV purification, centripetal liquid transfer, and bead-based EV capture and immunolabeling. These modules operate seamlessly to execute a complete EV workflow on a single disposable disc. Using whole blood inputs, the developed system enriched plasma EVs within 8 minutes while removing >96% of lipoprotein contaminants. It further enabled multiplexed immunolabeling for 16 EV protein targets, completing the entire workflow in <75 minutes. In a pilot clinical study ( n = 221 plasma samples), we applied the prototype device for multi-panel (30-marker) EV protein profiling. The resulting signatures robustly distinguished cancer from non-cancer samples and further stratified tumor types. By combining automation, standardization, and throughput, this disc-fluidic platform provides a scalable route toward reproducible EV analytics and has strong potential for advancing EV biomarkers into clinical oncology applications.