Sheathless Inertial Cell Ordering Microfluidic Device for Extreme Throughput Flow Cytometry

Extremely high throughput: ~28 million cells per second Efficacious at detecting rare cell populations Low cost and convenient Fluorescent or chemical cell labeling is not required

Rapid red and white blood cell analysis. Rare circulating tumor or stem cell detection from blood. Use in biomedical research as a rapid blood and lymph analysis tool.

UCLA researchers have developed a microfluidic chip capable of processing ~28 million cells per second. The design does not require a sheath stream, which simplifies the design without sacrificing efficiency. By coupling the chip with high-speed imaging, the researchers can observe single cells to compare physical characteristics or specifically targeted/stained cells for accurate blood cell detection and analysis.

Patent Number: US20120063664A1
Application Number: US13231570A
Inventor: Di Carlo, Dino | Ozcan, Aydogan | Jalali, Bahram | Hur, Soojung | Tse, Henry T.K.
Priority Date: 14 Sep 2010
Priority Number: US20120063664A1
Application Date: 13 Sep 2011
Publication Date: 15 Mar 2012
IPC Current: G06K000900
US Class: 382133
Title: INERTIAL PARTICLE FOCUSING FLOW CYTOMETER
Usefulness: INERTIAL PARTICLE FOCUSING FLOW CYTOMETER
Summary: Flow cytometry system for separating, sorting, counting and examining particles or cells e.g. red blood cells, white blood cells, hematopoietic stem cells, endothelial progenitor cells, and circulating tumor cells, for determining general patient health, blood diseases, and HIV or AIDS disease progression.
Novelty: Flow cytometry system for e.g. examining white blood cells to determine patient health, has controller connected to analyzer, where controller is utilized to direct detection of characteristic of particles by analyzer

Disease Diagnostic/Treatment

HIV

8693762

State Of Development

The researchers have designed the microfluidic chip architecture to optimize cell ordering which assists analysis. Also, the particle velocity has been optimized to provide uniform particle lattices in the imaging field. The system has been validated using automated image analysis to differentiate between red blood cells and different types of white blood cells. Additional modifications to increase imaging fidelity and cell throughput are currently being incorporated into the prototype.   

Background

Flow cytometry is regularly used for patient blood analysis. Because, flow cytometry analyzes cells in a serial process, it is time consuming and lacks sufficient throughput (current methods top out at 10,000 cells/sec) to detect rare cells in blood or other dilute solutions which can have concentrations in the range of one in one quadrillion (1:10¹⁵). In addition, flow cytometry has high operating costs, lacks portability, and requires dedicated personnel and is therefore impractical for point-of-care use. Because the global flow cytometry market is projected to exceed $1.5 billion with an annual growth above 10%, great attention is being paid to microfluidic devices for healthcare applications. Microfluidics devices offer a significant reduction in cost, increase in portability, and higher throughput efficiency than flow-cytometry with comparable or better sensitivity.         

Related Materials

Soojung Claire Hur, Henry Tat Kwong Tse and Dino Di Carlo. "Sheatless inertial cell ordering for extreme throughput flow cytometry." Lab Chip, 2010, 10, 274-280. PMID: 20090998.
Di Carlo D. Inertial microfluidics. Lab Chip, 2009 Nov 7; 9(21):3038-46. PMID: 19823716.

Additional Technologies by these Inventors

• Sequential Array Cytometry: Multi-Parameter Imaging with a Single Fluorescent Channel
• Microfluidic Platform to Control Particle Placement and Spacing in Channel Flow
• Single-Molecular Homogenous Amplified Detection in Confined Volumes
• Controllable Emulsification And Point-Of-Care Assays Driven By Magnetic Induced Movement Of The Fluid
• Enhanced Fluorescence Readout And Reduced Inhibition For Nucleic Acid Amplification Tests
• Drop-Carrier Particles For Digital Assays
• Homogenous Entropy-Driven Biomolecular Assay (HEBA)
• Label-Free Digital Bright Field Analysis of DNA Amplification
• DNA Nanotechnology for Quick and Sensitive Detection of Nucleic Acids in Point-of-Care (POC) Diagnosis Applications
• Microfluidic Interfacial Magnetic Separation (MIMS)
• Methods For High-Throughput Screening and Sorting of Hyperproducing Single Cells
• Methods And Devices for Continuous Analyte Sensing with Microporous Annealed Particle Gels

Tech ID/UC Case

23190/2010-277-0

Related Cases

2010-277-0

USA

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