Microdevices for dielectrophoretic flow - through cell separation

A novel dielectrophoretic cell-separation technique has been developed for the separation of white blood cells. A microdevice was constructed from two consecutive arrays of microelectrodes, one to focus the particles into a sheet and the second to separate them using a combination of positive and negative dielectrophoresis. At a flow rate of 1 ml/hour, experiments showed that THP-1 cells were captured on the electrode array. The experimental results were compared with a 2-D numerical simulation of the particle dynamics. The device is shown to be effective at fractionating subpopulations of cells into different bands along the array.

[1]  Cell Sorting and Separation using Dielectrophoresis , 2003 .

[2]  R. Pethig Dielectrophoresis: Using Inhomogeneous AC Electrical Fields to Separate and Manipulate Cells , 1996 .

[3]  S G Shirley,et al.  Dielectrophoretic sorting of particles and cells in a microsystem. , 1998, Analytical chemistry.

[4]  H Morgan,et al.  Separation of submicron bioparticles by dielectrophoresis. , 1999, Biophysical journal.

[5]  R. Pethig,et al.  Dielectrophoretic separation of bacteria using a conductivity gradient. , 1996, Journal of biotechnology.

[6]  B. Mason,et al.  Dielectrophoretic separation of living cells. , 1971, Canadian journal of microbiology.

[7]  G. G. Stokes "J." , 1890, The New Yale Book of Quotations.

[8]  Hywel Morgan,et al.  AC ELECTROKINETICS: COLLOIDS AND NANOPARTICLES. , 2002 .

[9]  Hywel Morgan,et al.  Dielectrophoretic chromatography of cells , 2002 .

[10]  F F Becker,et al.  Dielectric properties of human leukocyte subpopulations determined by electrorotation as a cell separation criterion. , 1999, Biophysical journal.

[11]  Thomas B. Jones,et al.  Electromechanics of Particles , 1995 .

[12]  H. Morgan,et al.  The dielectrophoretic and travelling wave forces generated by interdigitated electrode arrays: analytical solution using Fourier series , 2001 .

[13]  Peter R. C. Gascoyne,et al.  A theoretical method of electrical field analysis for dielectrophoretic electrode arrays using Green's theorem , 1996 .

[14]  F F Becker,et al.  Separation of human breast cancer cells from blood by differential dielectric affinity. , 1995, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[15]  D. Clague,et al.  The 2D electric field above a planar sequence of independent strip electrodes , 2000 .

[16]  Masao Washizu,et al.  Molecular dielectrophoresis of bio-polymers , 1992, Conference Record of the 1992 IEEE Industry Applications Society Annual Meeting.

[17]  T. Tsong,et al.  Dielectrophoresis and electrorotation of neurospora slime and murine myeloma cells. , 1991, Biophysical journal.

[18]  H. A. Pohl,et al.  Separation of Living and Dead Cells by Dielectrophoresis , 1966, Science.

[19]  Hywel Morgan,et al.  Numerical solution of the dielectrophoretic and travelling wave forces for interdigitated electrode arrays using the finite element method , 2002 .