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Updated: May 9, 2025

Label-free Isolation and Enrichment of Cells Through Contactless Dielectrophoresis
Published on: September 3, 2013
Quantifying the Electrophysiological Properties of Cells Using Dielectrophoresis
Krista S P Clarke1, Oreoluwa V Griffiths1, Kai Hoettges2
1Centre for Biomedical Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, UK.
Abstract:
The 3DEP Reader (DEPtech) is a commercial noninvasive, high throughput, easily adoptable benchtop microfluidic platform that utilizes the principles of dielectrophoresis to analyze cells in suspension and determine their electrical properties. This protocol describes the operation, value, and common setup of the platform to provide users with the ability to characterize three important electrophysiological parameters of approximately 20,000 cells in under 2 min. Dielectrophoresis (DEP) is an electrokinetic phenomenon which describes the movement of suspended polarizable cells, in a nonuniform electric field. The 3DEP plots the relative DEP force experienced by cells across a range of AC frequencies generating a spectrum through which membrane conductance, membrane capacitance, and cytoplasmic conductivity are derived.
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