title: A microfluidic device for continuous manipulation of biological cells using dielectrophoresis.
abstract: The present study demonstrates the design, simulation, fabrication and testing of a label-free continuous manipulation and separation micro-device of particles/biological cells suspended on medium based on conventional dielectrophoresis. The current dielectrophoretic device uses three planner electrodes to generate non-uniform electric field and induces both p-DEP and n-DEP force simultaneously depending on the dielectric properties of the particles and thus influencing at least two types of particles at a time. Numerical simulations were performed to predict the distribution of non-uniform electric field, DEP force and particle trajectories. The device is fabricated utilizing the advantage of bonding between PDMS and SU8 polymer. The p-DEP particles move away from the center of the streamline, while the n-DEP particles will follow the central streamline along the channel length. Dielectrophoretic effects were initially tested using polystyrene beads followed by manipulation of HeLa cells. In the experiment, it was observed that polystyrene beads in DI water always response as n-DEP up to 1MHz frequency, whereas HeLa cells in PBS medium response as n-DEP up to 400kHz frequency and then it experiences p-DEP up to 1MHz. Further, the microscopic observations of DEP responses of HeLa cells were verified by performing trapping experiment at static condition.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 721302, India. Electronic address: debanjands.ee@iitkgp.ac.in.
authors.forename: Debanjan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Das
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 721302, India.
authors.forename: Karabi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Biswas
authors.affiliation: School of Medical Science and Technology, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 721302, India.
authors.forename: Soumen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Das
mesh_terms: D002469:Cell Separation; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003584:Cytological Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D004566:Electrodes; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D004586:Electrophoresis / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D004867:Equipment Design; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D009038:Motion; D011137:Polystyrenes; D014867:Water
chemical_list: D011137:Polystyrenes; D014867:Water
keywords: COMSOL; Continuous particles manipulation; DEP; Microfluidics