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Abstract Isolation and detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) hold significant importance for the early diagnosis of cancer and the assessment of therapeutic strategies. However, the scarcity of CTCs among peripheral blood cells presents a major challenge to their detection. Additionally, a similar size range between CTCs and white blood cells (WBCs) makes conventional microfluidic platforms inadequate for the isolation of CTCs. To overcome these challenges, in this study, a novel inertial‐dielectrophoretic microfluidic channel for size‐independent, single‐stage separation of CTCs from WBCs has been presented. The proposed device utilizes a spiral microchannel embedded with interdigitated electrodes. A numerical model is developed and validated to investigate the influence of various parameters related to the channel design, fluid flow, and electrode configuration. It was found that optimal separation of CTCs could be obtained at a relatively low voltage, termed the critical voltage. Furthermore, at the critical voltage of 7.5 V, the hybrid microchannel is demonstrated to be capable of separating CTCs from different WBC subtypes including granulocytes, monocytes, T‐, and B‐lymphocytes. The unique capabilities of the hybrid spiral microchannel allow for this size‐independent isolation of CTCs from a mixture of WBCs. Overall, the proposed technique can be readily utilized for continuous and high‐throughput separation of cancer cells.
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A Microfluidic 3-Part Differential Sorter
We present an integrated microfluidic chip capable of label-free isolation of three major subpopulations of white blood cells (WBCs) (lymphocytes, monocytes and granulocytes) from undiluted whole blood. The proposed system accomplishes 3-part differential sorting of WBCs by: (1) On-chip lysis of RBCs from the blood sample, and (2) Downstream isolation of lymphocytes, monocytes and granulocytes using dielectrophoresis (DEP) technology.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1841509
- PAR ID:
- 10210815
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- 24th International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences (MicroTAS 2020)
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
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