Fabrication of a new all-in-one microfluidic dielectrophoresis integrated chip and living cell separation
- iScience. 2022 Jan 15;25(2):103776. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.103776.
- 1. Department of Infectious Diseases, Hiroshima University Hospital, Hiroshima 734-8551, Japan.
- 2. AFI Corporation, Medical Innovation Center, Building, 2nd Floor of Kyoto University, 53 Shogoin Kawahara-cho, Kyoto City, Sakyo-ku 606-8507, Japan.
- 3. Microbial Genomics and Ecology, Office of Industry-Academia-Government and Community Collaboration, Hiroshima University, 1-3-2 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima City, Hiroshima 739-8511, Japan.
- 4. Center for Holobiome and Built Environment, Hiroshima University, 1-3-2 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima City, Hiroshima 739-8511, Japan.
Microfluidic dielectrophoresis (DEP) technology has been applied to many devices to perform label-free target cell separation. Cells separated by these devices are used in laboratories, mainly for medical research. The present study designed a microfluidic DEP device to fabricate a rapid and semiautomated cell separation system in conjunction with microscopy to enumerate the separated cells. With this device, we efficiently segregated Bacterial cells from liquid products and enriched one cell type from two mixed eukaryotic cell types. The device eliminated sample pretreatment and established cell separation by all-in-one operation in a lab-on-chip, requiring only a small sample volume (0.5-1 mL) to enumerate the target cells and completing the entire separation process within 30 min. Such a rapid cell separation technique is in high demand by many researchers to promptly characterize the target cells.