A Hybrid Electrokinetic-Microfluidic Chip for Isolating CTCs in Physiological Sample

摘要

This paper reports a hybrid electrokinetic-microfluidic chip, which combines electrophoresis (EP), dielectrophoresis (DEP) or AC electro thermal flow (ACEF), for isolating circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in physiological sample. While most electro kinetic techniques only function in low-conductivity buffers, hybrid electro kinetics enables effective operation in high-conductivity samples (1 S/m), which are compatible to physiological fluids such as blood, buffy coat and urine. Using a 3-electrode configuration and optimizing AC voltage, frequency and DC offset, we demonstrate that breast cancer cell can be localized within 10 sec in buffy coat without any pretreatment.