title: Microfluidic Devices for Terahertz Spectroscopy of Live Cells Toward Lab-on-a-Chip Applications.
abstract: THz spectroscopy is an emerging technique for studying the dynamics and interactions of cells and biomolecules, but many practical challenges still remain in experimental studies. We present a prototype of simple and inexpensive cell-trapping microfluidic chip for THz spectroscopic study of live cells. Cells are transported, trapped and concentrated into the THz exposure region by applying an AC bias signal while the chip maintains a steady temperature at 37 °C by resistive heating. We conduct some preliminary experiments on E. coli and T-cell solution and compare the transmission spectra of empty channels, channels filled with aqueous media only, and channels filled with aqueous media with un-concentrated and concentrated cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA. tangqi@email.arizona.edu.
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA. minliang@email.arizona.edu.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA. luyi@psu.edu.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA. pak@engr.psu.edu.
authors.forename: Pak Kin
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: WiseWear Corporation, New York, NY 10018, USA. jerry.wilmink@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Gerald J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Wilmink
authors.affiliation: College of Pharmacy, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA. dzhang@pharmacy.arizona.edu.
authors.forename: Donna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA. hxin@ece.arizona.edu.
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D058948:Cell Tracking / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000166:cytology*; D056656:Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology*; D013696:Temperature; D055068:Terahertz Spectroscopy / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D014867:Water
keywords: THz spectroscopy; cell trapping; lab-on-a-chip; microfluidics