Microfluidics for Size and Deformability Based Cell Sorting

Abstract

Three-dimensional observation of the location of focused particle streams along both the height and width of the channel cross-section in spiral inertial microfluidic systems was proposed. Based on the understanding of the force balance, a spiral microchannel with trapezoidal cross section was developed for separation with improved performace.

A new microfluidic system with real-time feedback control to evaluate single cell deformability while minimizing cell-size dependence of the measurement was developed. The system consists of a microfluidic chip with two cross channels, i.e., the control channel and the flow channel, forming a membrane area in between. By adjusting the pressure in the control channel, the deformed membrane can generate a controllable bottleneck section in the flow channel. The bottleneck was used for measuring the deformability of cells by adjusting the height of the bottleneck in real time according to the diameter of the cells.