(113f) Dielectrophoretic Field Shaping for Enhanced Circulating Tumor Cell Isolation and Characterization

Isolation or enrichment of viable cell subpopulations from a complex biological sample is of paramount importance in many biomedical applications requiring quantification or the molecular characterization of a particular cell fraction. As of recent, dielectrophoresis (DEP) has attracted various research groups for its potential as a sample enrichment method. Most often varied complications are suffered when traditional devices use DEP as an enrichment method. Complications include low throughput, electrode and sample fouling, bubble formation, and undesired electrochemical reactions that could damage the array of electrodes used. These problems have limited DEP device utilization in practical biomedical applications. The device presented in this work possesses simple new manufacturing techniques that eliminates all the mentioned complications while reducing sample processing time, reduces prototyping cost and shrinks the gap to mass production. The DEP device proposed in this work creates a quasi-constant dielectrophoretic force along entire length of the microfluidic channel, enhancing cell separation. This DEP device isolates cultured cancer cell lines from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). SK-BR-3, MCF-7 (human breast adenocarcinoma) and PC-3 (human prostate adenocarcinoma) are cancer cell lines used in this study that capture efficiencies in the order of 80, 82, and 86%. Respectively, PBMC depletion rates ranging from 90-95% are present.