(116ay) Field Strength Dependency of Red Blood Cell Rupture Rate in Dielectrophoretic Microdevice

Red blood cell rupture controlled via dielectrophoresis is chemical free and AC field dependent. Chemical lysing techniques may leave undesirable chemicals in lab-on-a-chip devices and thus potentially negatively impact sensitivity and specificity of subsequent intracellular molecular analysis. In addition, the use of dielectrophoresis would enable the same microdevice to be used to both rupture and subsequently analyze the blood sample. Current work in this area has focused on quantifying the rupturing rate of the various blood types when subjected to a 1kHz alternating current field at an electric field strength of 0.03Vpp/micron. Initial results show that the rate of rupture differs based on blood type and the amount of time the blood has been out of the body. This work used field strengths of 0.015Vpp/micron and .06Vpp/micron on type A+, B+, AB+, O+, and O- blood types at a concentration ratio of 600:1 phosphate saline buffer (PSB) to blood to explore the effect of field strength on rupture. The field strength was changed by varying the peak to peak voltage, but is constrained by electrode spacing in each microdevice. To remove the variable of blood age, all experiments have been performed on blood the same day it was donated. The results from these experiments have provided evidence that higher electric field strengths may result in faster rupture rates.