Hydrodynamic self-focusing in a parallel microfluidic device through cross-filtration

Torino, Stefania; Iodice, Mario; Rendina, Ivo; Coppola, Giuseppe; Schonbrun, Ethan

doi:10.1063/1.4936260

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…[21][22][23] At the core of these pointof-care testing applications lies the necessity for particle focusing to be in either 2D or 3D and the technique to be applicable for a wide range of flow rates, which the current proposed technique addresses. In addition to that, the proposed design also possesses latent potency in the realization of a sheath-free 3D flow focusing device when combined with a 2D hydrodynamic self-focusing design similar to the one reported by S. Torino et al 24 This has a vital role to play in further reducing the number of pumps needed to achieve flow focusing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 68%

“…Overall, the ease of fabrication, applicability of the technique for a wide range of flow rates, flexibility to control both tightness of focusing and line of focusing, and excellent insensitivity of the position of the line-offocusing to the sheath flow rate allow this device to add a novel dimension to the field of micro-flow-cytometry. This technique, if appropriately combined with a 2D hydrodynamic self-focusing design similar to the one reported by S. Torino et al 24 can lead to a potential sheath-free 3D flow focusing technique whose applicability will be independent of sample flow rates for flows with a Reynolds number of less than 10.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

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Single-layer microfluidic device to realize hydrodynamic 3D flow focusing

2016

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The recent rapid growth of microfluidic applications has witnessed the emergence of several particle flow focusing techniques for analysis and/or further processing. The majority of flow focusing techniques employ an external sheath fluid to achieve sample flow focusing independent of the flow rate, in contrast to sheath-free techniques. However, the introduction of a sheath fluid to surround the sample fluid has complicated the device design and fabrication, generally involving multi-layer fabrication and bonding of multiple polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) layers. Several promising efforts have been made to reduce the complexity of fabrication. However, most of these methods involved the use of inertial/Dean effects, which in turn demanded the use of higher sample flow rates. In this paper, we report a method of flow focusing that uses a sheath fluid to enclose the sample in a single layer of PDMS, and that possesses applicability for a wide range of sample flow rates. This method of flow focusing uses abrupt channel depth variation and a shift of one of the sample-sheath junctions (termed as 'junction-shift') against the direction of the sample flow. This configuration serves to manipulate the sample fluid with respect to the sheath fluid and achieve the desired flow focusing. This design facilitates the attainment of 3D flow focusing in two sequential steps (depth-wise and then along the lateral direction) and in distinct regions, hence enabling the regions to be used in imaging and non-imaging flow cytometric applications, respectively. Simulations were performed to characterize and determine the optimum set of design parameters. Experimental demonstrations of this technique were carried out by focusing fluorescein dye and blood cells in flow.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 68%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Single-layer microfluidic device to realize hydrodynamic 3D flow focusing

2016

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“…Moreover, physical removal requires multiple operating steps, and are prone to operational error [15]. In the past decade, microfluidic-based blood cell sorting methods assisted by fluorescence [16], microfiltration [17], fluid dynamics [18][19][20], inertia [21], dielectrophoresis [22], acoustics [23,24] and magnetism [25] have received extensive attention due to their portability and affordability. Among them, acousticbased microfluidic sorting method has become one of the most promising methods, because of their advantages such as simplicity, short sorting time, cost-effectiveness, high yield, and physical integrity [26][27][28][29].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cell damage evaluation by intelligent imaging flow cytometry

Yao

Mei

et al. 2023

Cytometry Pt A

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Essential thrombocythemia (ET) is an uncommon situation in which the body produces too many platelets. This can cause blood clots anywhere in the body and results in various symptoms and even strokes or heart attacks. Removing excessive platelets using acoustofluidic methods receives extensive attention due to their high efficiency and high yield. While the damage to the remaining cells, such as erythrocytes and leukocytes is yet evaluated. Existing cell damage evaluation methods usually require cell staining, which are time‐consuming and labor‐intensive. In this paper, we investigate cell damage by optical time‐stretch (OTS) imaging flow cytometry with high throughput and in a label‐free manner. Specifically, we first image the erythrocytes and leukocytes sorted by acoustofluidic sorting chip with different acoustic wave powers and flowing speed using OTS imaging flow cytometry at a flowing speed up to 1 m/s. Then, we employ machine learning algorithms to extract biophysical phenotypic features from the cellular images, as well as to cluster and identify images. The results show that both the errors of the biophysical phenotypic features and the proportion of abnormal cells are within 10% in the undamaged cell groups, while the errors are much greater than 10% in the damaged cell groups, indicating that acoustofluidic sorting causes little damage to the cells within the appropriate acoustic power, agreeing well with clinical assays. Our method provides a novel approach for high‐throughput and label‐free cell damage evaluation in scientific research and clinical settings.

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“…Most of the passive techniques operate at high flow rates by utilizing either Dean’s effects or inertial effects and are not suitable for imaging based applications [18,19,20]. One of the passive techniques that operate at low flow rates uses pillars to achieve the separation of particle-free fluid from the particles and reuse them to accomplish sheath-free flow focusing [21]. The proposed pillar-based design works well for rigid particles of larger size than the spacing between the pillars, but is not suitable for separating deformable particles, such as red blood cells from the fluid.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microfluidic In-Flow Decantation Technique Using Stepped Pillar Arrays and Hydraulic Resistance Tuners

2019

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Separating the particles from the liquid component of sample solutions is important for several microfluidic-based sample preparations and/or sample handling techniques, such as plasma separation from whole blood, sheath-free flow focusing, particle enrichment etc. This paper presents a microfluidic in-flow decantation technique that provides the separation of particles from particle-free fluid while in-flow. The design involves the expansion of sample fluid channel in lateral and depth directions, thereby producing a particle-free layer towards the walls of the channel, followed by gradual extraction of this particle-free fluid through a series of tiny openings located towards one-end of the depth-direction. The latter part of this design is quite crucial in the functionality of this decantation technique and is based on the principle called wee-extraction. The design, theory, and simulations were presented to explain the principle-of-operation. To demonstrate the proof-of-principle, the experimental characterization was performed on beads, platelets, and blood samples at various hematocrits (2.5%–45%). The experiments revealed clog-free separation of particle-free fluid for at least an hour of operation of the device and demonstrated purities close to 100% and yields as high as 14%. The avenues to improve the yield are discussed along with several potential applications.

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Hydrodynamic self-focusing in a parallel microfluidic device through cross-filtration

Cited by 6 publications

References 63 publications

Single-layer microfluidic device to realize hydrodynamic 3D flow focusing

Single-layer microfluidic device to realize hydrodynamic 3D flow focusing

Cell damage evaluation by intelligent imaging flow cytometry

Microfluidic In-Flow Decantation Technique Using Stepped Pillar Arrays and Hydraulic Resistance Tuners

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