Automatic medium exchange for micro-volume cell samples based on dielectrophoresis

Area of Science:

• Biotechnology
• Microfluidics
• Cell Biology

Background:

• Cell medium exchange is vital in life science and medicine.
• Conventional methods struggle with micro-volume samples like circulating tumor cells (CTCs).

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an automatic, efficient cell medium exchange method for micro-volume samples using dielectrophoresis (DEP).
• To optimize and validate the DEP-based method for microfluidic applications.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a microfluidic chip with plane stair-shaped interdigital electrodes.
• Employed dielectrophoresis (DEP) forces to drive cells between laminar flows of cell suspension and fresh medium.
• Characterized and optimized the medium exchange process through theoretical analysis and experimental validation.

Main Results:

• Achieved a 96.9% harvest rate for medium exchange in 0.3 μL samples.
• Demonstrated the effectiveness of DEP for precise cell manipulation in microfluidic channels.
• Validated the method's performance for micro-volume cell samples.

Conclusions:

• The proposed DEP-based method offers an efficient and automatic solution for micro-volume cell medium exchange.
• This technique is highly suitable for integration into automated cell processing systems.
• The method shows significant potential for applications in cell analysis, electroporation, and single-cell sequencing.