Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 18, 2026
07:19
Microfluidic Imaging Flow Cytometry by Asymmetric-detection Time-stretch Optical Microscopy ATOM
Published on: June 28, 2017
10.8K
Full-angle tomographic phase microscopy of flowing quasi-spherical cells
Massimiliano M Villone1, Pasquale Memmolo, Francesco Merola
1Dipartimento di Ingegneria Chimica, dei Materiali e della Produzione Industriale, University of Naples "Federico II", Piazzale Tecchio 80, 80125 Napoli, Italy.
Lab on a Chip
|November 24, 2017
Summary
We developed a new full-angle tomographic phase microscopy (FA-TPM) technique for analyzing flowing cells in microfluidic channels. This passive optical method accurately maps cell refractive indices without mechanical scanning, enabling advanced liquid biopsy applications.
Area of Science:
- Biophotonics
- Cellular Imaging
- Microfluidics
Background:
- Accurate characterization of flowing cells is crucial for applications like liquid biopsy.
- Existing in-flow microscopy techniques often require complex setups or lack comprehensive angular information.
- Tomographic phase microscopy (TPM) offers label-free imaging but faces challenges in dynamic, flowing samples.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a reliable full-angle tomographic phase microscopy (FA-TPM) method for flowing quasi-spherical cells.
- To enable accurate 3D refractive index mapping of cells in microfluidic channels using a passive optical system.
- To advance the capability for characterizing circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in liquid biopsy.
Main Methods:
- Exploited engineered rolling of quasi-spherical cells within microfluidic channels.
- Utilized a passive optical system, avoiding mechanical scanning or multi-direction probing.
- Employed a theoretical model to retrieve cell rotation angles from holographic reconstructions of phase-contrast images.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated a general extension of in-flow TPM to quasi-spherical cells in dynamic flow.
- Achieved accurate retrieval of cell rotation angles by matching theoretical models with experimental data.
- Successfully performed proof-of-concept experiments on human breast adenocarcinoma MCF-7 cells.
Conclusions:
- The developed FA-TPM method provides accurate 3D refractive index mapping of flowing cells with a simple optical setup.
- This technique represents the first and only method for in-flow TPM with full-angle probing.
- The findings open new avenues for the comprehensive characterization of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in liquid biopsy.
