4548

ISU researchers have developed a device that employs an array of > 1,400 wireless electrodes for the continuous high-throughput isolation of cells that often are expressed in small concentrations.

ISURF #04548 describes an array of > 1,400 wireless bipolar electrodes (BPEs) in dielectrophoresis (DEP) devices. This allows for a large volume of cells to quickly be sorted based on dielectrophoric response. Without ohmic contact to the individual array elements, capacitive charging of the electrical double layer at opposing ends of each BPE allows an AC electric field applied by only two driving electrodes to be transmitted across the entire device. The electric field distribution is readily tuned by altering the dimensionality of BPEs. A suggested use of this technology is for detecting the presence of circulating tumor cells (CTC), which can be expressed as low as 1 in a billion cells, and that current technologies fall short of being able effectively diagnose, resulting in false negatives of patients in remission. ISU researches have thus far shown promising results of separating out breast cancer cells from white blood cell fractions.

This technology is related to ISURF 4774: Integrated selective capture, sequestration, fluidic isolation, electrical lysis and analysis of single cells and

ISURF 5086: Concentration enrichment, separation and cation exchange in water-in-oil droplets

• DEP separation allows for good sensitive and high specificity

• Wireless technology allows for new architectures and large arrays

• High throughput of cell

Cell capture and seperation