Recent advances in dielectrophoresis-based cell viability assessment

Dielectrophoresis (DEP) is a non-destructive, accurate, and label-free cell manipulating technique and DEP applications have been found in various fields. Assessment of cell viability is one of the important applications and many investigations have been reported. In this paper, cell polarization and its modeling, some key parameters employed for living/dead cell separation, as well as electrode configurations are reviewed. Focus is given to the latest development of DEP devices employed for the assessment of cell viability. Experimentally determined factors for separating living/dead cells, such as the conductivity of suspending medium and the frequency of applied electric field, are summarized. The future directions and potential challenges in this field are also outlined.