title: Ultra-fast, label-free isolation of circulating tumor cells from blood using spiral microfluidics.
abstract: Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are rare cancer cells that are shed from primary or metastatic tumors into the peripheral blood circulation. Phenotypic and genetic characterization of these rare cells can provide important information to guide cancer staging and treatment, and thus further research into their characteristics and properties is an area of considerable interest. In this protocol, we describe detailed procedures for the production and use of a label-free spiral microfluidic device to allow size-based isolation of viable CTCs using hydrodynamic forces that are present in curvilinear microchannels. This spiral system enables us to achieve ≥ 85% recovery of spiked cells across multiple cancer cell lines and 99.99% depletion of white blood cells in whole blood. The described spiral microfluidic devices can be produced at an extremely low cost using standard microfabrication and soft lithography techniques (2-3 d), and they can be operated using two syringe pumps for lysed blood samples (7.5 ml in 12.5 min for a three-layered multiplexed chip). The fast processing time and the ability to collect CTCs from a large patient blood volume allows this technique to be used experimentally in a broad range of potential genomic and transcriptomic applications.
authors.affiliation: School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Australian Center for NanoMedicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.|Medical Oncology Group, Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research, Liverpool, New South Wales, Australia.|BioSystems and Micromechanics (BioSyM), Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Centre, Singapore, Singapore.
authors.forename: Majid Ebrahimi
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Warkiani
authors.affiliation: BioSystems and Micromechanics (BioSyM), Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Centre, Singapore, Singapore.|Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
authors.forename: Bee Luan
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Khoo
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Lidan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: BioSystems and Micromechanics (BioSyM), Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Centre, Singapore, Singapore.|Department of Biomedical Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
authors.forename: Andy Kah Ping
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Tay
authors.affiliation: Clearbridge BioMedics Pte Ltd, Singapore, Singapore.
authors.forename: Ali Asgar S
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Bhagat
authors.affiliation: BioSystems and Micromechanics (BioSyM), Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Centre, Singapore, Singapore.|Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.|Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Jongyoon
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: BioSystems and Micromechanics (BioSyM), Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Centre, Singapore, Singapore.|Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.|Department of Biomedical Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
authors.forename: Chwee Teck
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Lim
mesh_terms: D016923:Cell Death; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002469:Cell Separation / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D056656:Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; D008863:Microspheres; D009360:Neoplastic Cells, Circulating / Q000473:pathology*; D013997:Time Factors