Hansen Bow

Microfluidics for cell separation.

The need for efficient cell separation, an essential preparatory step in many biological and medical assays, has led to the recent development of numerous microscale separation techniques. This review describes the current state-of-the-art in microfluidics-based cell separation techniques. Microfluidics-based sorting offers numerous advantages, including reducing sample volumes, faster sample processing, high sensitivity and spatial resolution, low device cost, and increased portability. The techniques presented are broadly classified as being active or passive depending on the operating principles. The various separation principles are explained in detail along with popular examples demonstrating their application toward cell separation. Common separation metrics, including separation markers, resolution, efficiency, and throughput, of these techniques are discussed. Developing efficient microscale separation methods that offering greater control over cell population distribution will be important in realizing true point-of-care (POC) lab-on-a-chip (LOC) systems.

Pf155/RESA protein influences the dynamic microcirculatory behavior of ring-stage Plasmodium falciparum infected red blood cells

Proteins exported by Plasmodium falciparum to the red blood cell (RBC) membrane modify the structural properties of the parasitized RBC (Pf-RBC). Although quasi-static single cell assays show reduced ring-stage Pf-RBCs deformability, the parameters influencing their microcirculatory behavior remain unexplored. Here, we study the dynamic properties of ring-stage Pf-RBCs and the role of the parasite protein Pf155/Ring-Infected Erythrocyte Surface Antigen (RESA). Diffraction phase microscopy revealed RESA-driven decreased Pf-RBCs membrane fluctuations. Microfluidic experiments showed a RESA-dependent reduction in the Pf-RBCs transit velocity, which was potentiated at febrile temperature. In a microspheres filtration system, incubation at febrile temperature impaired traversal of RESA-expressing Pf-RBCs. These results show that RESA influences ring-stage Pf-RBCs microcirculation, an effect that is fever-enhanced. This is the first identification of a parasite factor influencing the dynamic circulation of young asexual Pf-RBCs in physiologically relevant conditions, offering novel possibilities for interventions to reduce parasite survival and pathogenesis in its human host.

Continuum transport model of Ogston sieving in patterned nanofilter arrays for separation of rod-like biomolecules.

This article proposes a simple computational transport model of rod‐like short dsDNA molecules through a microfabricated nanofilter array. Using a nanochannel consisting of alternate deep wells and shallow slits, it is demonstrated that the complex partitioning of rod‐like DNA molecules of different sizes over the nanofilter array can be well described by continuum transport theory with the orientational entropy and anisotropic transport parameters properly quantified. In this model, orientational entropy of the rod‐like DNA is calculated from the equilibrium distribution of rigid cylindrical rod near the solid wall. The flux caused by entropic differences is derived from the interaction between the DNA rods and the solid channel wall during rotational diffusion. In addition to its role as an entropic barrier, the confinement of the DNA in the shallow channels also induces large changes in the effective electrophoretic mobility for longer molecules in the presence of EOF. In addition to the partitioning/selectivity of DNA molecules by the nanofilter, this model can also be used to estimate the dispersion of separated peaks. It allows for fast optimization of nanofilter separation devices, without the need of stochastic modeling techniques that are usually required.

Decreasing effective nanofluidic filter size by modulating electrical double layers: Separation enhancement in microfabricated nanofluidic filters

Conventional methods for separating biomolecules are based on steric interactions between the biomolecules and randomly oriented gel fibers. The recently developed artificial molecular sieves also rely on steric interactions for separation. In this work, we present an experimental investigation of a method that can be used in these sieves to increase separation selectivity and resolution. This method exploits the electrostatic repulsion between the charged molecules and the charged nanofluidic structure. Although this method has been mentioned in the previous work, it has not been examined in detail. We characterize this method by comparing the selectivity with that achieved in devices with different dimensions. The results of this study are relevant to the optimization of chip‐based gel‐free biomolecule separation and analysis.