Cell sorter the size of a mobile phone

Cell sorting is widely used in many fields of biology and clinical diagnostics to study cell characteristics or isolate specific populations. Modern commercially available devices using fluorescent labels perform their work quickly and efficiently, but they have a number of disadvantages: in addition to their large size and high cost, including the high cost of routine maintenance, they pose a biological hazard. Moreover, the traditional sorting process can reduce the viability and functioning activity of many fragile or sensitive cells, such as neurons, stem cells, hepatocytes and spermatozoa by 30-99%. 

Over the past decade, a number of prototypes of an acoustic microfluidic cell sorter have emerged – a new potential tool for isolating certain types of cells and screening drugs. However, the throughput of most microfluidic devices is only a few hundred cells per second, which does not allow them to compete with commercial devices that work two orders of magnitude faster.

Researchers at the Pennsylvania State University, working under the guidance of Professor Jun Huang, managed to solve many of these problems. The new cellular sorter created by them based on acoustic waves, which is a small and inexpensive device of the "laboratory on a chip" type, is quite capable of creating competition with traditional sorters.

To date, it allows you to sort about 3,000 cells per second, while the developers hope to increase this figure to more than 13,000 cells per second. This high speed is achieved through the use of focusing counter-comb converters to create standing surface acoustic waves. In the absence of focusing waves, the acoustic field stretches, which slows down the sorting process. At the same time, the narrow field allows for quick sorting simultaneously with gentle manipulation of individual cells.

The intensity and frequency of acoustic waves used by the device are comparable with the corresponding indicators used in ultrasound imaging, which is recognized as safe for diagnostic use, including at various stages of pregnancy. The developers are confident that the gentle effect of low-power acoustic waves will allow not only cell viability to remain unchanged, but also parameters such as gene expression, posttranslational modification and cell functions. This is extremely important for numerous applications, such as animal reproduction, cellular immunotherapy and biological research.

Picture: Tony Jun Huang / Penn State

Using a lab-on-a-chip system makes the device both compact and inexpensive. In today's configuration, its size and cost are comparable to the size and cost of a mobile phone. In the near future, the developers plan to integrate an acoustic module for cell sorting with an optical module for cell registration. This will increase the throughput of the device to 10,000 events per second, increasing it to the size of a book.

Article by Liqiang Ren et al. A high-throughput acoustic cell sorter is published in the journal Lab on a Chip.

Evgeniya Ryabtseva

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of Pennsylvania State University:
A fast cell sorter shrinks to cell phone size.  

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru

28.09.2015