title: Reorientation of microfluidic channel enables versatile dielectrophoretic platforms for cell manipulations.
abstract: Dielectrophoresis is a versatile tool for the sorting, immobilization, and characterization of cells in microfluidic systems. The performance of dielectrophoretic systems strongly relies on the configuration of microelectrodes, which produce a nonuniform electric field. However, once fabricated, the microelectrodes cannot be reconfigured to change the characteristics of the system. Here, we show that the reorientation of the microfluidic channel with respect to the microelectrodes can be readily utilized to alter the characteristics of the system. This enables us to change the location and density of immobilized viable cells across the channel, release viable cells along customized numbers of streams within the channel, change the deflection pattern of nonviable cells along the channel, and improve the sorting of viable and nonviable cells in terms of flow throughput and efficiency of the system. We demonstrate that the reorientation of the microfluidic channel is an effective tool to create versatile dielectrophoretic platforms using the same microelectrode design.
authors: School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
authors: Shi-Yang
authors: SY
authors: Tang
authors: Wei
authors: W
authors: Zhang
authors: Pyshar
authors: P
authors: Yi
authors: Sara
authors: S
authors: Baratchi
authors: Kourosh
authors: K
authors: Kalantar-zadeh
authors: Khashayar
authors: K
authors: Khoshmanesh
mesh_terms: D018914:Cells, Immobilized / Q000166:cytology; D004553:Electric Conductivity; D004586:Electrophoresis / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004867:Equipment Design; D008839:Microelectrodes; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000166:cytology*