title: Deformability-based red blood cell separation in deterministic lateral displacement devices-A simulation study.
abstract: We show, via three-dimensional immersed-boundary-finite-element-lattice-Boltzmann simulations, that deformability-based red blood cell (RBC) separation in deterministic lateral displacement (DLD) devices is possible. This is due to the deformability-dependent lateral extension of RBCs and enables us to predict a priori which RBCs will be displaced in a given DLD geometry. Several diseases affect the deformability of human cells. Malaria-infected RBCs, for example, tend to become stiffer than their healthy counterparts. It is therefore desirable to design microfluidic devices which can detect diseases based on the cells' deformability fingerprint, rather than preparing samples using expensive and time-consuming biochemical preparation steps. Our findings should be helpful in the development of new methods for sorting cells and particles by deformability.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Materials and Processes, School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh , The King's Buildings, Edinburgh EH9 3JL, Scotland.
authors.forename: Timm
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Krüger
authors.affiliation: Sphere Fluidics Ltd., The Jonas Webb Building, Babraham Research Campus, Babraham, Cambridge CB22 3AT , United Kingdom and London Centre for Nanotechnology, University College London , 17-19 Gordon Street, London WC1H 0AH, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: David
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-9195-9476
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Holmes
authors.affiliation: Centre for Computational Science, University College London , 20 Gordon Street, London WC1H 0AJ, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Peter V
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-8787-7256
authors.initials: PV
authors.lastname: Coveney