title: Laminar-flow-based separations at the microscale.
abstract: The natural separation maintained by microfluidic flows is employed as the basis of a particle/cell sorting device. This method of separating particulate suspensions exploits the inherent laminar nature of microscale fluid dynamics and incorporates applied fields and image cytometry to enable sorting based upon any visually identifiable difference between colloid-sized cells or particles. This technique may be used to easily isolate, separate, sort, or enrich virtually any suspension of microscale biological or colloidal particles within a microfluidic system. The entire footprint of the device described here is less than 0.01 mm(2), allowing it to be readily incorporated within highly integrated micro total analysis systems (microTAS).
authors.affiliation: Chemical Engineering Department, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado 80401, USA.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Oakey
authors.forename: Josh
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Allely
authors.forename: David W M
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Marr
mesh_terms: D002469:Cell Separation; D003102:Colloids; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008832:Microchemistry / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D008853:Microscopy; D008904:Miniaturization; D010316:Particle Size; D012212:Rheology
chemical_list: D003102:Colloids