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Zhan L, Edd J, Mishra A, Toner M. Label-Free Microfluidic Apheresis of Circulating Tumor Cell Clusters. ADVANCED SCIENCE (WEINHEIM, BADEN-WURTTEMBERG, GERMANY) 2024:e2405853. [PMID: 39199012 DOI: 10.1002/advs.202405853] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2024] [Revised: 07/17/2024] [Indexed: 09/01/2024]
Abstract
Screening liters of blood (i.e., apheresis) represents a generalized approach to promote the reliable access to circulating tumor cell clusters (CTCCs), which are known to be highly metastasis-competent, yet ultrarare. However, no existing CTCC sorting technology has demonstrated high throughput, high yield, low shear stress, and minimal blood dilution simultaneously as required in apheresis. Here, a label-free method is introduced termed Precision Apheresis for Non-invasive Debulking of cell Aggregates (PANDA) to continuously isolate CTCCs from undiluted blood to clean buffer through size sorting, processing 1.4 billion cells per second. The cell focusing is optimized within whole blood leveraging secondary transverse flow and margination. The PANDA chip recovers >90% of spiked ≈24 rare HeLa cell clusters from 100 mL undiluted blood samples (equivalent to ≈500 billion blood cells) at 1 L h-1 throughput, with ≤20s device residence time, ≤15 Pa shear stress, and >99.9% return of blood components. The technology lays the groundwork for future routine isolation to increase the recovery of these ultrarare yet clinically significant tumor cell populations from large volumes of blood to advance cancer research, early detection, and treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Li Zhan
- Center for Engineering in Medicine and Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, 02129, USA
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
| | - Jon Edd
- Center for Engineering in Medicine and Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, 02129, USA
- Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, 12129, USA
| | - Avanish Mishra
- Center for Engineering in Medicine and Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, 02129, USA
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
- Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, 12129, USA
| | - Mehmet Toner
- Center for Engineering in Medicine and Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, 02129, USA
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
- Shriners Hospitals for Children, Boston, MA, 02114, USA
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2
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Zolotareva M, Cascalheira F, Caneiras C, Bárbara C, Caetano DM, Teixeira MC. In the flow of molecular miniaturized fungal diagnosis. Trends Biotechnol 2024:S0167-7799(24)00157-4. [PMID: 38987118 DOI: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2024.06.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2024] [Revised: 06/03/2024] [Accepted: 06/18/2024] [Indexed: 07/12/2024]
Abstract
The diagnosis of fungal infections presents several challenges and limitations, stemming from the similarities in symptomatology, diversity of underlying pathogenic species, complexity of fungal biology, and scarcity of rapid, affordable, and point-of-care approaches. In this review, we assess technological advances enabling the conversion of cutting-edge laboratory molecular diagnostic methods to cost-effective microfluidic devices. The most promising strategies toward the design of DNA sequence-based fungal diagnostic systems, capable of capturing and deciphering the highly informative DNA of the pathogen and adapted for resource-limited settings, are discussed, bridging fungal biology, molecular genetics, microfluidics, and biosensors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Zolotareva
- Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores - Microsistemas e Nanotecnologias, INESC-, MN, 1000-029 Lisboa, Portugal; iBB - Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences, Associate Laboratory Institute for Health and Bioeconomy - i4HB, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
| | - Francisco Cascalheira
- Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores - Microsistemas e Nanotecnologias, INESC-, MN, 1000-029 Lisboa, Portugal; iBB - Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences, Associate Laboratory Institute for Health and Bioeconomy - i4HB, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
| | - Cátia Caneiras
- Environmental Health Institute (ISAMB), Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, 1649-026 Lisboa, Portugal; Associate Laboratory TERRA, Faculty of Medicine, Universidade de Lisboa, 1649-026 Lisboa, Portugal; Egas Moniz Center for Interdisciplinary Research, Egas Moniz School of Health and Science, 2829-511 Almada, Portugal; Institute of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Universidade de Lisboa, 1649-026 Lisboa, Portugal
| | - Cristina Bárbara
- Environmental Health Institute (ISAMB), Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, 1649-026 Lisboa, Portugal; Associate Laboratory TERRA, Faculty of Medicine, Universidade de Lisboa, 1649-026 Lisboa, Portugal; Centro Hospitalar Universitário Lisboa Norte, 1600-190, Lisboa, Portugal
| | - Diogo Miguel Caetano
- Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores - Microsistemas e Nanotecnologias, INESC-, MN, 1000-029 Lisboa, Portugal; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal.
| | - Miguel Cacho Teixeira
- iBB - Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences, Associate Laboratory Institute for Health and Bioeconomy - i4HB, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal; Department of Bioengineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal.
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3
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Jeon H, Perez CR, Kyung T, Birnbaum ME, Han J. Separation of Activated T Cells Using Multidimensional Double Spiral (MDDS) Inertial Microfluidics for High-Efficiency CAR T Cell Manufacturing. Anal Chem 2024; 96:10780-10790. [PMID: 38889002 DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.4c01981] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/20/2024]
Abstract
This study introduces a T cell enrichment process, capitalizing on the size differences between activated and unactivated T cells to facilitate the isolation of activated, transducible T cells. By employing multidimensional double spiral (MDDS) inertial sorting, our approach aims to remove unactivated or not fully activated T cells post-activation, consequently enhancing the efficiency of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell manufacturing. Our findings reveal that incorporating a simple, label-free, and continuous MDDS sorting step yields a purer T cell population, exhibiting significantly enhanced viability and CAR-transducibility (with up to 85% removal of unactivated T cells and approximately 80% recovery of activated T cells); we found approximately 2-fold increase in CAR transduction efficiency for a specific sample, escalating from ∼10% to ∼20%, but this efficiency highly depends on the original T cell sample as MDDS sorting would be more effective for samples possessing a higher proportion of unactivated T cells. This new cell separation process could augment the efficiency, yield, and cost-effectiveness of CAR T cell manufacturing, potentially broadening the accessibility of this transformative therapy and contributing to improved patient outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hyungkook Jeon
- Department of Manufacturing Systems and Design Engineering (MSDE), Seoul National University of Science and Technology (SEOULTECH), 232 Gongneung-ro, Nowon-gu, Seoul 01811, Republic of Korea
| | | | | | - Michael E Birnbaum
- Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Centre, Critical Analytics for Manufacturing Personalized-Medicine (CAMP) IRG, 1 CREATE Way, No. 04-13/14 Enterprise Wing, 138602, Singapore
- Ragon Institute of Mass General, MIT, and Harvard, 400 Technology Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
| | - Jongyoon Han
- Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Centre, Critical Analytics for Manufacturing Personalized-Medicine (CAMP) IRG, 1 CREATE Way, No. 04-13/14 Enterprise Wing, 138602, Singapore
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Mishra A, Huang SB, Dubash T, Burr R, Edd JF, Wittner BS, Cunneely QE, Putaturo VR, Deshpande A, Antmen E, Gopinathan KA, Otani K, Miyazawa Y, Kwak JE, Guay SY, Kelly J, Walsh J, Nieman L, Galler I, Chan P, Lawrence MS, Sullivan RJ, Bardia A, Micalizzi DS, Sequist LV, Lee RJ, Franses JW, Ting DT, Brunker PAR, Maheswaran S, Miyamoto DT, Haber DA, Toner M. Tumor cell-based liquid biopsy using high-throughput microfluidic enrichment of entire leukapheresis product. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.03.13.583573. [PMID: 38559183 PMCID: PMC10980012 DOI: 10.1101/2024.03.13.583573] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/04/2024]
Abstract
Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs), interrogated by sampling blood from patients with cancer, contain multiple analytes, including intact RNA, high molecular weight DNA, proteins, and metabolic markers. However, the clinical utility of tumor cell-based liquid biopsy has been limited since CTCs are very rare, and current technologies cannot process the blood volumes required to isolate a sufficient number of tumor cells for in-depth assays. We previously described a high-throughput microfluidic prototype utilizing high-flow channels and amplification of cell sorting forces through magnetic lenses. Here, we apply this technology to analyze patient-derived leukapheresis products, interrogating a mean blood volume of 5.83 liters from patients with metastatic cancer, with a median of 2,799 CTCs purified per patient. Isolation of many CTCs from individual patients enables characterization of their morphological and molecular heterogeneity, including cell and nuclear size and RNA expression. It also allows robust detection of gene copy number variation, a definitive cancer marker with potential diagnostic applications. High-volume microfluidic enrichment of CTCs constitutes a new dimension in liquid biopsies.
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Iqbal M, Mukhamedshin A, Lezzar DL, Abhishek K, McLennan AL, Lam FW, Shevkoplyas SS. Recent advances in microfluidic cell separation to enable centrifugation-free, low extracorporeal volume leukapheresis in pediatric patients. BLOOD TRANSFUSION = TRASFUSIONE DEL SANGUE 2023; 21:494-513. [PMID: 37146298 PMCID: PMC10645346 DOI: 10.2450/bloodtransfus.506] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2022] [Accepted: 03/02/2023] [Indexed: 05/07/2023]
Abstract
Leukapheresis is a common extracorporeal procedure for leukodepletion and cellular collection. During the procedure, a patient's blood is passed through an apheresis machine to separate white blood cells (WBCs) from red blood cells (RBCs) and platelets (PLTs), which are then returned to the patient. Although it is well-tolerated by adults and older children, leukapheresis poses a significant risk to neonates and low-weight infants because the extracorporeal volume (ECV) of a typical leukapheresis circuit represents a particularly large fraction of their total blood volume. The reliance of existing apheresis technology on centrifugation for separating blood cells limits the degree to which the circuit ECV could be miniaturized. The rapidly advancing field of microfluidic cell separation holds excellent promise for devices with competitive separation performance and void volumes that are orders of magnitude smaller than their centrifugation-based counterparts. This review discusses recent advancements in the field, focusing on passive separation methods that could potentially be adapted to perform leukapheresis. We first outline the performance requirements that any separation method must meet to replace centrifugation-based methods successfully. We then provide an overview of the passive separation methods that can remove WBCs from whole blood, focusing on the technological advancements made in the last decade. We describe and compare standard performance metrics, including blood dilution requirements, WBC separation efficiency, RBC and PLT loss, and processing throughput, and discuss the potential of each separation method for future use as a high-throughput microfluidic leukapheresis platform. Finally, we outline the primary common challenges that must still be overcome for these novel microfluidic technologies to enable centrifugation-free, low-ECV leukapheresis in the pediatric setting.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mubasher Iqbal
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX, United States of America
| | - Anton Mukhamedshin
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX, United States of America
| | - Dalia L. Lezzar
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX, United States of America
| | - Kumar Abhishek
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX, United States of America
| | - Alexandra L. McLennan
- Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States of America
| | - Fong W. Lam
- Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States of America
| | - Sergey S. Shevkoplyas
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX, United States of America
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Huang M, Wang T, Cai Y, Fan H, Li Z. StainGAN: Learning a structural preserving translation for white blood cell images. JOURNAL OF BIOPHOTONICS 2023; 16:e202300196. [PMID: 37496209 DOI: 10.1002/jbio.202300196] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2023] [Revised: 07/08/2023] [Accepted: 07/22/2023] [Indexed: 07/28/2023]
Abstract
Analysis of white blood cells in blood smear images plays a vital role in computer-aided diagnosis for the analysis and treatment of many diseases. However, different techniques for blood smear preparation result in images with large appearance variations, which limits the performance of large-scale machine learning algorithms. In this paper, we propose StainGAN, an image translation framework to transform the conventional Wright-stained white blood cell images into their rapidly-stained counterpart. Moreover, we designed a cluster-based learning strategy that does not require manual annotations and a multi-scale discriminator that incorporates a richer hierarchy of the spatial context to generate sharper images with better semantic consistency. Experimental results on multiple real-world datasets prove the effectiveness of our proposed framework. Moreover, we show that the transformed images from StainGAN can be used to boost the downstream segmentation performance under the label-limiting scenario.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maoye Huang
- School of Computer and Artificial Intelligence, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Tao Wang
- Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Information Processing and Intelligent Control, College of Computer and Control Engineering, Minjiang University, Fuzhou, China
| | - Yuanzheng Cai
- Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Information Processing and Intelligent Control, College of Computer and Control Engineering, Minjiang University, Fuzhou, China
| | - Haoyi Fan
- School of Computer and Artificial Intelligence, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Zuoyong Li
- Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Information Processing and Intelligent Control, College of Computer and Control Engineering, Minjiang University, Fuzhou, China
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Lu N, Tay HM, Petchakup C, He L, Gong L, Maw KK, Leong SY, Lok WW, Ong HB, Guo R, Li KHH, Hou HW. Label-free microfluidic cell sorting and detection for rapid blood analysis. LAB ON A CHIP 2023; 23:1226-1257. [PMID: 36655549 DOI: 10.1039/d2lc00904h] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 22.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
Blood tests are considered as standard clinical procedures to screen for markers of diseases and health conditions. However, the complex cellular background (>99.9% RBCs) and biomolecular composition often pose significant technical challenges for accurate blood analysis. An emerging approach for point-of-care blood diagnostics is utilizing "label-free" microfluidic technologies that rely on intrinsic cell properties for blood fractionation and disease detection without any antibody binding. A growing body of clinical evidence has also reported that cellular dysfunction and their biophysical phenotypes are complementary to standard hematoanalyzer analysis (complete blood count) and can provide a more comprehensive health profiling. In this review, we will summarize recent advances in microfluidic label-free separation of different blood cell components including circulating tumor cells, leukocytes, platelets and nanoscale extracellular vesicles. Label-free single cell analysis of intrinsic cell morphology, spectrochemical properties, dielectric parameters and biophysical characteristics as novel blood-based biomarkers will also be presented. Next, we will highlight research efforts that combine label-free microfluidics with machine learning approaches to enhance detection sensitivity and specificity in clinical studies, as well as innovative microfluidic solutions which are capable of fully integrated and label-free blood cell sorting and analysis. Lastly, we will envisage the current challenges and future outlook of label-free microfluidics platforms for high throughput multi-dimensional blood cell analysis to identify non-traditional circulating biomarkers for clinical diagnostics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nan Lu
- School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Blk N3, Level 2, Room 86 (N3-02c-86), 639798, Singapore.
- HP-NTU Digital Manufacturing Corporate Lab, Nanyang Technological University, 65 Nanyang Drive, Block N3, 637460, Singapore
| | - Hui Min Tay
- School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Blk N3, Level 2, Room 86 (N3-02c-86), 639798, Singapore.
| | - Chayakorn Petchakup
- School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Blk N3, Level 2, Room 86 (N3-02c-86), 639798, Singapore.
| | - Linwei He
- School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Blk N3, Level 2, Room 86 (N3-02c-86), 639798, Singapore.
| | - Lingyan Gong
- School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Blk N3, Level 2, Room 86 (N3-02c-86), 639798, Singapore.
| | - Kay Khine Maw
- School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Blk N3, Level 2, Room 86 (N3-02c-86), 639798, Singapore.
| | - Sheng Yuan Leong
- School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Blk N3, Level 2, Room 86 (N3-02c-86), 639798, Singapore.
| | - Wan Wei Lok
- School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Blk N3, Level 2, Room 86 (N3-02c-86), 639798, Singapore.
| | - Hong Boon Ong
- School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Blk N3, Level 2, Room 86 (N3-02c-86), 639798, Singapore.
| | - Ruya Guo
- Key Laboratory of Agricultural Information Acquisition Technology, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100083, China
| | - King Ho Holden Li
- School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Blk N3, Level 2, Room 86 (N3-02c-86), 639798, Singapore.
- HP-NTU Digital Manufacturing Corporate Lab, Nanyang Technological University, 65 Nanyang Drive, Block N3, 637460, Singapore
| | - Han Wei Hou
- School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Blk N3, Level 2, Room 86 (N3-02c-86), 639798, Singapore.
- HP-NTU Digital Manufacturing Corporate Lab, Nanyang Technological University, 65 Nanyang Drive, Block N3, 637460, Singapore
- Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, 11 Mandalay Road, Clinical Sciences Building, 308232, Singapore
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A high-throughput microfluidic device based on controlled incremental filtration to enable centrifugation-free, low extracorporeal volume leukapheresis. Sci Rep 2022; 12:13798. [PMID: 35963876 PMCID: PMC9376077 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-16748-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2022] [Accepted: 07/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Leukapheresis, the extracorporeal separation of white blood cells (WBCs) from red blood cells (RBCs) and platelets (PLTs), is a life-saving procedure used for treating patients with cancer and other conditions, and as the initial step in the manufacturing of cellular and gene-based therapies. Well-tolerated by adults, leukapheresis poses a significant risk to neonates and low-weight infants because the extracorporeal volume (ECV) of standard centrifugation-based machines represents a particularly large fraction of these patients' total blood volume. Here we describe a novel high-throughput microfluidic device (with a void volume of 0.4 mL) based on controlled incremental filtration (CIF) technology that could replace centrifugation for performing leukapheresis. The CIF device was tested extensively using whole blood from healthy volunteers at multiple hematocrits (5-30%) and flow rates (10-30 mL/min). In the flow-through regime, the CIF device separated WBCs with > 85% efficiency and 10-15% loss of RBCs and PLTs while processing whole blood diluted with saline to 10% hematocrit at a flow rate of 10 mL/min. In the recirculation regime, the CIF device demonstrated a similar level of separation performance, virtually depleting WBCs in the recirculating blood (~ 98% reduction) by the end of a 3.5-hour simulated leukapheresis procedure. Importantly, the device operated without clogging or decline in separation performance, with minimal activation of WBCs and PLTs and no measurable damage to RBCs. Compared to the typical parameters of centrifugation-based leukapheresis, the CIF device had a void volume at least 100-fold smaller, removed WBCs about twice as fast, and lost ~ 2-3-fold fewer PLTs, while operating at a flow rate compatible with the current practice. The hematocrit and flow rate at which the CIF device operated were significantly higher than previously published for other microfluidic cell separation methods. Finally, this study is the first to demonstrate a highly efficient separation of cells from recirculating blood using a microfluidic device. Overall, these findings suggest the feasibility of using high-throughput microfluidic cell separation technology to ultimately enable centrifugation-free, low-ECV leukapheresis. Such a capability would be particularly useful in young children, a vulnerable group of patients who are currently underserved.
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Edd JF, Mishra A, Smith KC, Kapur R, Maheswaran S, Haber DA, Toner M. Isolation of Circulating Tumor Cells. iScience 2022; 25:104696. [PMID: 35880043 PMCID: PMC9307519 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104696] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) enter the vasculature from solid tumors and disseminate widely to initiate metastases. Mining the metastatic-enriched molecular signatures of CTCs before, during, and after treatment holds unique potential in personalized oncology. Their extreme rarity, however, requires isolation from large blood volumes at high yield and purity, yet they overlap leukocytes in size and other biophysical properties. Additionally, many CTCs lack EpCAM that underlies much of affinity-based capture, complicating their separation from blood. Here, we provide a comprehensive introduction of CTC isolation technology, by analyzing key separation modes and integrated isolation strategies. Attention is focused on recent progress in microfluidics, where an accelerating evolution is occurring in high-throughput sorting of cells along multiple dimensions. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) spread cancer through the bloodstream (metastasis) CTC-based liquid biopsy enables minimally invasive sampling of cancer cells in blood Their extreme rarity requires all CTC types to be enriched from large blood volumes CTC isolation technology is analyzed, with a focus on high-throughput microfluidics
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Affiliation(s)
- Jon F. Edd
- BioMEMS Resource Center, Center for Engineering in Medicine and Surgical Services, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
- Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA
| | - Avanish Mishra
- BioMEMS Resource Center, Center for Engineering in Medicine and Surgical Services, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
- Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | | | - Ravi Kapur
- BioMEMS Resource Center, Center for Engineering in Medicine and Surgical Services, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
- BendBio, Inc., Sharon, MA 02067, USA
| | - Shyamala Maheswaran
- Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Daniel A. Haber
- Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Bethesda, MD 20815, USA
| | - Mehmet Toner
- BioMEMS Resource Center, Center for Engineering in Medicine and Surgical Services, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
- Shriners Hospitals for Children, Boston, MA 02114, USA
- Corresponding author
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10
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Descamps L, Le Roy D, Deman AL. Microfluidic-Based Technologies for CTC Isolation: A Review of 10 Years of Intense Efforts towards Liquid Biopsy. Int J Mol Sci 2022; 23:ijms23041981. [PMID: 35216097 PMCID: PMC8875744 DOI: 10.3390/ijms23041981] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2022] [Revised: 02/04/2022] [Accepted: 02/07/2022] [Indexed: 02/01/2023] Open
Abstract
The selection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) directly from blood as a real-time liquid biopsy has received increasing attention over the past ten years, and further analysis of these cells may greatly aid in both research and clinical applications. CTC analysis could advance understandings of metastatic cascade, tumor evolution, and patient heterogeneity, as well as drug resistance. Until now, the rarity and heterogeneity of CTCs have been technical challenges to their wider use in clinical studies, but microfluidic-based isolation technologies have emerged as promising tools to address these limitations. This review provides a detailed overview of latest and leading microfluidic devices implemented for CTC isolation. In particular, this study details must-have device performances and highlights the tradeoff between recovery and purity. Finally, the review gives a report of CTC potential clinical applications that can be conducted after CTC isolation. Widespread microfluidic devices, which aim to support liquid-biopsy-based applications, will represent a paradigm shift for cancer clinical care in the near future.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucie Descamps
- Univ Lyon, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS, INSA Lyon, Ecole Centrale de Lyon, CPE Lyon, INL, UMR5270, 69622 Villeurbanne, France;
| | - Damien Le Roy
- Institut Lumière Matière ILM-UMR 5306, CNRS, Université Lyon 1, 69622 Villeurbanne, France;
| | - Anne-Laure Deman
- Univ Lyon, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS, INSA Lyon, Ecole Centrale de Lyon, CPE Lyon, INL, UMR5270, 69622 Villeurbanne, France;
- Correspondence:
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Jeon H, Kwon T, Yoon J, Han J. Engineering a deformation-free plastic spiral inertial microfluidic system for CHO cell clarification in biomanufacturing. LAB ON A CHIP 2022; 22:272-285. [PMID: 34931631 DOI: 10.1039/d1lc00995h] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Inertial microfluidics has enabled many impactful high throughput applications. However, devices fabricated in soft elastomer (i.e., polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)) suffer reliability issues due to significant deformation generated by the high pressure and flow rates in inertial microfluidics. In this paper, we demonstrated deformation-free and mass-producible plastic spiral inertial microfluidic devices for high-throughput cell separation applications. The design of deformable PDMS spiral devices was translated to their plastic version by compensating for the channel deformation in the PDMS devices, analyzed by numerical simulation and confocal imaging methods. The developed plastic spiral devices showed similar performance to their original PDMS devices for blood separation and Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell retention. Furthermore, using a multiplexed plastic spiral unit containing 100 spirals, we successfully demonstrated ultra-high-throughput cell clarification (at a processing rate of 1 L min-1) with a high cell-clarification efficiency of ∼99% (at the cell density changing from ∼2 to ∼10 × 106 cells mL-1). Benefitting from the continuous and clogging-free separation with an industry-level throughput, the cell clarification device could be a critical breakthrough for the production of therapeutic biologics such as antibodies or vaccines, impacting biomanufacturing in general.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hyungkook Jeon
- Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
| | - Taehong Kwon
- Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
| | - Junghyo Yoon
- Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
| | - Jongyoon Han
- Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
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12
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Abstract
Magnetic cell separation has become a key methodology for the isolation of target cell populations from biological suspensions, covering a wide spectrum of applications from diagnosis and therapy in biomedicine to environmental applications or fundamental research in biology. There now exists a great variety of commercially available separation instruments and reagents, which has permitted rapid dissemination of the technology. However, there is still an increasing demand for new tools and protocols which provide improved selectivity, yield and sensitivity of the separation process while reducing cost and providing a faster response. This review aims to introduce basic principles of magnetic cell separation for the neophyte, while giving an overview of recent research in the field, from the development of new cell labeling strategies to the design of integrated microfluidic cell sorters and of point-of-care platforms combining cell selection, capture, and downstream detection. Finally, we focus on clinical, industrial and environmental applications where magnetic cell separation strategies are amongst the most promising techniques to address the challenges of isolating rare cells.
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13
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Tang H, Niu J, Jin H, Lin S, Cui D. Geometric structure design of passive label-free microfluidic systems for biological micro-object separation. MICROSYSTEMS & NANOENGINEERING 2022; 8:62. [PMID: 35685963 PMCID: PMC9170746 DOI: 10.1038/s41378-022-00386-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2021] [Revised: 02/27/2022] [Accepted: 03/18/2022] [Indexed: 05/05/2023]
Abstract
Passive and label-free microfluidic devices have no complex external accessories or detection-interfering label particles. These devices are now widely used in medical and bioresearch applications, including cell focusing and cell separation. Geometric structure plays the most essential role when designing a passive and label-free microfluidic chip. An exquisitely designed geometric structure can change particle trajectories and improve chip performance. However, the geometric design principles of passive and label-free microfluidics have not been comprehensively acknowledged. Here, we review the geometric innovations of several microfluidic schemes, including deterministic lateral displacement (DLD), inertial microfluidics (IMF), and viscoelastic microfluidics (VEM), and summarize the most creative innovations and design principles of passive and label-free microfluidics. We aim to provide a guideline for researchers who have an interest in geometric innovations of passive label-free microfluidics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hao Tang
- Institute of Nano Biomedicine and Engineering, Shanghai Engineering Research Center for Intelligent Diagnosis and Treatment Instrument, Department of Instrument Science and Engineering, School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan RD, Shanghai, 200240 China
| | - Jiaqi Niu
- Institute of Nano Biomedicine and Engineering, Shanghai Engineering Research Center for Intelligent Diagnosis and Treatment Instrument, Department of Instrument Science and Engineering, School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan RD, Shanghai, 200240 China
| | - Han Jin
- Institute of Nano Biomedicine and Engineering, Shanghai Engineering Research Center for Intelligent Diagnosis and Treatment Instrument, Department of Instrument Science and Engineering, School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan RD, Shanghai, 200240 China
- National Engineering Research Center for Nanotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 28 Jiangchuan Easternroad, Shanghai, 200241 China
| | - Shujing Lin
- Institute of Nano Biomedicine and Engineering, Shanghai Engineering Research Center for Intelligent Diagnosis and Treatment Instrument, Department of Instrument Science and Engineering, School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan RD, Shanghai, 200240 China
- National Engineering Research Center for Nanotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 28 Jiangchuan Easternroad, Shanghai, 200241 China
| | - Daxiang Cui
- Institute of Nano Biomedicine and Engineering, Shanghai Engineering Research Center for Intelligent Diagnosis and Treatment Instrument, Department of Instrument Science and Engineering, School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan RD, Shanghai, 200240 China
- National Engineering Research Center for Nanotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 28 Jiangchuan Easternroad, Shanghai, 200241 China
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14
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Lu X, Tayebi M, Ai Y. A low-cost and high-throughput benchtop cell sorter for isolating white blood cells from whole blood. Electrophoresis 2021; 42:2281-2292. [PMID: 34010478 DOI: 10.1002/elps.202100024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/21/2021] [Revised: 05/10/2021] [Accepted: 05/16/2021] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
The ability to isolate and purify white blood cells (WBCs) from mixed ensembles such as blood would benefit autologous cell-based therapeutics as well as diagnosis of WBC disorders. Current WBCs isolation methods have the limitations of low purity or requiring complex and expensive equipment. In addition, due to the overlap in size distribution between lymphocytes (i.e., a sub-population of WBCs) and red blood cells (RBCs), it is challenging to achieve isolation of entire WBCs populations. In this work, we developed an inertial microfluidics-based cell sorter, which enables size-based, high-throughput isolation, and enrichment of WBCs from RBC-lysed whole blood. Using the developed inertial microfluidic chip, the sorting resolution is sharpened within 2 μm, which achieved separation between 3 and 5 μm diameter particles. Thus, with the present cell sorter, a full population of WBCs can be isolated from RBC-lysed blood samples with recovery ratio of 92%, and merely 5% difference in the composition percentage of the three subpopulations of granulocytes, monocytes, and lymphocytes compared to the original sample. Furthermore, our cell sorter is designed to enable broad application of size-based inertial cell sorting by supplying a series of microchips with different sorting cutoff size. This strategy allows us to further enrich the lymphocytes population by twofold using another microchip with a cutoff size between 10 and 15 μm. With simplicity and efficiency, our cell sorter provides a powerful platform for isolating and sorting of WBCs and also envisions broad potential sorting applications for other cell types.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoguang Lu
- Engineering Product Development, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore
| | - Mahnoush Tayebi
- Engineering Product Development, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore
| | - Ye Ai
- Engineering Product Development, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore
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15
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Rushton AJ, Nteliopoulos G, Shaw JA, Coombes RC. A Review of Circulating Tumour Cell Enrichment Technologies. Cancers (Basel) 2021; 13:cancers13050970. [PMID: 33652649 PMCID: PMC7956528 DOI: 10.3390/cancers13050970] [Citation(s) in RCA: 81] [Impact Index Per Article: 27.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/21/2021] [Revised: 02/22/2021] [Accepted: 02/23/2021] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Simple Summary Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) are cancer cells shed into the bloodstream from tumours and their analysis can provide important insights into cancer detection and monitoring, with the potential to direct personalised therapies for the patient. These CTCs are rare in the blood, which makes their detection and enrichment challenging and to date, only one technology (the CellSearch) has gained FDA approval for determining the prognosis of patients with advanced breast, prostate and colorectal cancers. Here, we review the wide range of enrichment technologies available to isolate CTCs from other blood components and highlight the important characteristics that new technologies should possess for routine clinical use. Abstract Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) are the precursor cells for the formation of metastatic disease. With a simple blood draw, liquid biopsies enable the non-invasive sampling of CTCs from the blood, which have the potential to provide important insights into cancer detection and monitoring. Since gaining FDA approval in 2004, the CellSearch system has been used to determine the prognosis of patients with metastatic breast, prostate and colorectal cancers. This utilises the cell surface marker Epithelial Cell Adhesion Molecule (EpCAM), to enrich CTCs, and many other technologies have adopted this approach. More recently, the role of mesenchymal-like CTCs in metastasis formation has come to light. It has been suggested that these cells are more aggressive metastatic precursors than their epithelial counterparts; however, mesenchymal CTCs remain undetected by EpCAM-based enrichment methods. This has prompted the development of a variety of ‘label free’ enrichment technologies, which exploit the unique physical properties of CTCs (such as size and deformability) compared to other blood components. Here, we review a wide range of both immunocapture and label free CTC enrichment technologies, summarising the most significant advantages and disadvantages of each. We also highlight the important characteristics that technologies should possess for routine clinical use, since future developments could have important clinical implications, with the potential to direct personalised therapies for patients with cancer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amelia J. Rushton
- Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London, Hammersmith Hospital, London W12 0NN, UK; (G.N.); (R.C.C.)
- Correspondence:
| | - Georgios Nteliopoulos
- Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London, Hammersmith Hospital, London W12 0NN, UK; (G.N.); (R.C.C.)
| | - Jacqueline A. Shaw
- Leicester Cancer Research Centre, University of Leicester, Leicester LE2 7LX, UK;
| | - R. Charles Coombes
- Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London, Hammersmith Hospital, London W12 0NN, UK; (G.N.); (R.C.C.)
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16
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Lafzi A, Raffiee AH, Dabiri S. Inertial migration of a deformable capsule in an oscillatory flow in a microchannel. Phys Rev E 2020; 102:063110. [PMID: 33466115 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.102.063110] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2020] [Accepted: 12/08/2020] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
Dynamics of a deformable capsule in an oscillatory flow of a Newtonian fluid in a microchannel has been studied numerically. The effects of oscillation frequency, capsule deformability, and channel flow rate have been explored by simulating the capsule within a microchannel. In addition, the simulation captures the effect of the type of imposed pressure oscillations on the migration pattern of the capsule. An oscillatory channel flow enables the focusing of extremely small biological particles by eliminating the need to design impractically long channels. The presented results show that the equilibrium position of the capsule changes not only by the addition of an oscillatory component to the pressure gradient but it also is influenced by the capsule deformability and channel flow rate. Furthermore, it has been shown that the amplitude of oscillation of capsules decreases as the channel flow rate and the rigidity of the capsule increases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ali Lafzi
- Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA
| | - Amir Hossein Raffiee
- School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA
| | - Sadegh Dabiri
- Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA.,School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA
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17
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Ho BD, Beech JP, Tegenfeldt JO. Charge-Based Separation of Micro- and Nanoparticles. MICROMACHINES 2020; 11:E1014. [PMID: 33218201 PMCID: PMC7702211 DOI: 10.3390/mi11111014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2020] [Revised: 11/11/2020] [Accepted: 11/14/2020] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Deterministic Lateral Displacement (DLD) is a label-free particle sorting method that separates by size continuously and with high resolution. By combining DLD with electric fields (eDLD), we show separation of a variety of nano and micro-sized particles primarily by their zeta potential. Zeta potential is an indicator of electrokinetic charge-the charge corresponding to the electric field at the shear plane-an important property of micro- and nanoparticles in colloidal or separation science. We also demonstrate proof of principle of separation of nanoscale liposomes of different lipid compositions, with strong relevance for biomedicine. We perform careful characterization of relevant experimental conditions necessary to obtain adequate sorting of different particle types. By choosing a combination of frequency and amplitude, sorting can be made sensitive to the particle subgroup of interest. The enhanced displacement effect due to electrokinetics is found to be significant at low frequency and for particles with high zeta potential. The effect appears to scale with the square of the voltage, suggesting that it is associated with either non-linear electrokinetics or dielectrophoresis (DEP). However, since we observe large changes in separation behavior over the frequency range at which DEP forces are expected to remain constant, DEP can be ruled out.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Jonas O. Tegenfeldt
- Division of Solid State Physics and NanoLund, Physics Department, Lund University, P.O. Box 118, 22100 Lund, Sweden; (B.D.H.); (J.P.B.)
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18
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Jeon H, Jundi B, Choi K, Ryu H, Levy BD, Lim G, Han J. Fully-automated and field-deployable blood leukocyte separation platform using multi-dimensional double spiral (MDDS) inertial microfluidics. LAB ON A CHIP 2020; 20:3612-3624. [PMID: 32990714 DOI: 10.1039/d0lc00675k] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
A fully-automated and portable leukocyte separation platform was developed based on a new type of inertial microfluidic device, multi-dimensional double spiral (MDDS) device, as an alternative to centrifugation. By combining key innovations in inertial microfluidic device designs and check-valve-based recirculation processes, highly purified and concentrated WBCs (up to >99.99% RBC removal, ∼80% WBC recovery, >85% WBC purity, and ∼12-fold concentrated WBCs compared to the input sample) were achieved in less than 5 minutes, with high reliability and repeatability (coefficient of variation, CV < 5%). Using this, one can harvest up to 0.4 million of intact WBCs from 50 μL of human peripheral blood (50 μL), without any cell damage or phenotypic changes in a fully-automated operation. Alternatively, hand-powered operation is demonstrated with comparable separation efficiency and speed, which eliminates the need for electricity altogether for truly field-friendly sample preparation. The proposed platform is therefore highly deployable for various point-of-care applications, including bedside assessment of the host immune response and blood sample processing in resource-limited environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hyungkook Jeon
- Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. and Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), 77 Cheongam-Ro, Nam-Gu, Pohang, Gyeongbuk 37673, Republic of Korea
| | - Bakr Jundi
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Kyungyong Choi
- Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. and Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Hyunryul Ryu
- Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
| | - Bruce D Levy
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Geunbae Lim
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), 77 Cheongam-Ro, Nam-Gu, Pohang, Gyeongbuk 37673, Republic of Korea
| | - Jongyoon Han
- Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. and Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA and Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
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19
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Hochstetter A, Vernekar R, Austin RH, Becker H, Beech JP, Fedosov DA, Gompper G, Kim SC, Smith JT, Stolovitzky G, Tegenfeldt JO, Wunsch BH, Zeming KK, Krüger T, Inglis DW. Deterministic Lateral Displacement: Challenges and Perspectives. ACS NANO 2020; 14:10784-10795. [PMID: 32844655 DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.0c05186] [Citation(s) in RCA: 62] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/11/2023]
Abstract
The advent of microfluidics in the 1990s promised a revolution in multiple industries from healthcare to chemical processing. Deterministic lateral displacement (DLD) is a continuous-flow microfluidic particle separation method discovered in 2004 that has been applied successfully and widely to the separation of blood cells, yeast, spores, bacteria, viruses, DNA, droplets, and more. Deterministic lateral displacement is conceptually simple and can deliver consistent performance over a wide range of flow rates and particle concentrations. Despite wide use and in-depth study, DLD has not yet been fully elucidated or optimized, with different approaches to the same problem yielding varying results. We endeavor here to provide up-to-date expert opinion on the state-of-art and current fundamental, practical, and commercial challenges with DLD as well as describe experimental and modeling opportunities. Because these challenges and opportunities arise from constraints on hydrodynamics, fabrication, and operation at the micro- and nanoscale, we expect this Perspective to serve as a guide for the broader micro- and nanofluidic community to identify and to address open questions in the field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Axel Hochstetter
- Department of Physics, University of Kaiserslautern, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany
| | - Rohan Vernekar
- School of Engineering, Institute for Multiscale Thermofluids, University of Edinburgh, EH9 3DW Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - Robert H Austin
- Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton 08544, New Jersey, United States
| | | | - Jason P Beech
- Department of Physics and NanoLund, Lund University, SE 22100 Lund, Sweden
| | - Dmitry A Fedosov
- Institute of Biological Information Processing and Institute for Advanced Simulation, Forschungszentrum Jülich, D-52425 Juelich, Germany
| | - Gerhard Gompper
- Institute of Biological Information Processing and Institute for Advanced Simulation, Forschungszentrum Jülich, D-52425 Juelich, Germany
| | - Sung-Cheol Kim
- IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598, United States
| | - Joshua T Smith
- IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598, United States
| | - Gustavo Stolovitzky
- IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598, United States
| | - Jonas O Tegenfeldt
- Department of Physics and NanoLund, Lund University, SE 22100 Lund, Sweden
| | - Benjamin H Wunsch
- IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598, United States
| | - Kerwin K Zeming
- Critical Analytics for Manufacturing of Personalized Medicine, Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology, 138602 Singapore
| | - Timm Krüger
- School of Engineering, Institute for Multiscale Thermofluids, University of Edinburgh, EH9 3DW Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - David W Inglis
- School of Engineering, Macquarie University, Macquarie Park, New South Wales 2109, Australia
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20
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Liang W, Austin RH, Sturm JC. Scaling of deterministic lateral displacement devices to a single column of bumping obstacles. LAB ON A CHIP 2020; 20:3461-3467. [PMID: 32930700 DOI: 10.1039/d0lc00570c] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/11/2023]
Abstract
We describe a deterministic lateral displacement (DLD) for particle separation with only a single column of bumping features. The bifurcation of fluid streams at obstacles is not set by the "tilt" of columns with respect to macroscopic current flow, but rather by the fluidic resistances for lateral flow at each obstacle. With one column of 14 bumping features and corresponding inlet/outlet channels, the single-column DLD can separate particles with diameters of 4.8 μm and 9.9 μm at 30 μL min-1, with an area of only 0.37 mm × 1.5 mm (0.55 mm2). The large-cell output contains over 99% of the 9.9 μm particles and only 0.2% of the 4.8 m particles. The throughput per area of 54 μL min-1 per mm2 represents a 10× increase over previous selective harvesting reports for microfluidic devices in a similar particle size range.
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Affiliation(s)
- Weibin Liang
- Princeton Institute for Science and Technology of Materials (PRISM), Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA.
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21
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Ultrahigh-throughput magnetic sorting of large blood volumes for epitope-agnostic isolation of circulating tumor cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2020; 117:16839-16847. [PMID: 32641515 PMCID: PMC7382214 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2006388117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 56] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Isolation of sufficient numbers of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in cancer patients could provide an alternative to invasive tumor biopsies, providing multianalyte cell-based biomarkers that are not available from current plasma circulating tumor DNA sequencing. Given the average prevalence at one CTC per billion blood cells, very large blood volumes must be screened to provide enough CTCs for reliable clinical applications. By creating an ultrahigh-throughput magnetic sorter, we demonstrate the efficient removal of leukocytes from near whole blood volume equivalents. Combined with leukapheresis to initially concentrate blood mononuclear cells, this LPCTC-iChip platform will enable noninvasive sampling of cancer cells in sufficient numbers for clinical applications, ranging from real-time pharmacokinetic monitoring of drug response to tissue-of-origin determination in early-stage cancer screening. Circulating tumor cell (CTC)-based liquid biopsies provide unique opportunities for cancer diagnostics, treatment selection, and response monitoring, but even with advanced microfluidic technologies for rare cell detection the very low number of CTCs in standard 10-mL peripheral blood samples limits their clinical utility. Clinical leukapheresis can concentrate mononuclear cells from almost the entire blood volume, but such large numbers and concentrations of cells are incompatible with current rare cell enrichment technologies. Here, we describe an ultrahigh-throughput microfluidic chip, LPCTC-iChip, that rapidly sorts through an entire leukapheresis product of over 6 billion nucleated cells, increasing CTC isolation capacity by two orders of magnitude (86% recovery with 105 enrichment). Using soft iron-filled channels to act as magnetic microlenses, we intensify the field gradient within sorting channels. Increasing magnetic fields applied to inertially focused streams of cells effectively deplete massive numbers of magnetically labeled leukocytes within microfluidic channels. The negative depletion of antibody-tagged leukocytes enables isolation of potentially viable CTCs without bias for expression of specific tumor epitopes, making this platform applicable to all solid tumors. Thus, the initial enrichment by routine leukapheresis of mononuclear cells from very large blood volumes, followed by rapid flow, high-gradient magnetic sorting of untagged CTCs, provides a technology for noninvasive isolation of cancer cells in sufficient numbers for multiple clinical and experimental applications.
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22
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Edd JF, Mishra A, Dubash TD, Herrera S, Mohammad R, Williams EK, Hong X, Mutlu BR, Walsh JR, Machado de Carvalho F, Aldikacti B, Nieman LT, Stott SL, Kapur R, Maheswaran S, Haber DA, Toner M. Microfluidic concentration and separation of circulating tumor cell clusters from large blood volumes. LAB ON A CHIP 2020; 20:558-567. [PMID: 31934715 PMCID: PMC7469923 DOI: 10.1039/c9lc01122f] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/11/2023]
Abstract
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are extremely rare in the blood, yet they account for metastasis. Notably, it was reported that CTC clusters (CTCCs) can be 50-100 times more metastatic than single CTCs, making them particularly salient as a liquid biopsy target. Yet they can split apart and are even rarer, complicating their recovery. Isolation by filtration risks loss when clusters squeeze through filter pores over time, and release of captured clusters can be difficult. Deterministic lateral displacement is continuous but requires channels not much larger than clusters, leading to clogging. Spiral inertial focusing requires large blood dilution factors (or lysis). Here, we report a microfluidic chip that continuously isolates untouched CTC clusters from large volumes of minimally (or undiluted) whole blood. An array of 100 μm-wide channels first concentrates clusters in the blood, and then a similar array transfers them into a small volume of buffer. The microscope-slide-sized PDMS device isolates individually-spiked CTC clusters from >30 mL per hour of whole blood with 80% efficiency into enumeration (fluorescence imaging), and on-chip yield approaches 100% (high speed video). Median blood cell removal (in base-10 logs) is 4.2 for leukocytes, 5.5 for red blood cells, and 4.9 for platelets, leaving less than 0.01% of leukocytes alongside CTC clusters in the product. We also demonstrate that cluster configurations are preserved. Gentle, high throughput concentration and separation of circulating tumor cell clusters from large blood volumes will enable cluster-specific diagnostics and speed the generation of patient-specific CTC cluster lines.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jon F Edd
- BioMEMS Resource Center, Center for Engineering in Medicine and Surgical Services, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA. and Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA
| | - Avanish Mishra
- BioMEMS Resource Center, Center for Engineering in Medicine and Surgical Services, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA.
| | - Taronish D Dubash
- Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Stefan Herrera
- BioMEMS Resource Center, Center for Engineering in Medicine and Surgical Services, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA.
| | - Ridhwan Mohammad
- BioMEMS Resource Center, Center for Engineering in Medicine and Surgical Services, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA.
| | - E Kendall Williams
- BioMEMS Resource Center, Center for Engineering in Medicine and Surgical Services, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA.
| | - Xin Hong
- Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA
| | - Baris R Mutlu
- BioMEMS Resource Center, Center for Engineering in Medicine and Surgical Services, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA.
| | - John R Walsh
- BioMEMS Resource Center, Center for Engineering in Medicine and Surgical Services, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA. and Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA
| | | | - Berent Aldikacti
- BioMEMS Resource Center, Center for Engineering in Medicine and Surgical Services, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA. and Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA
| | - Linda T Nieman
- Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA
| | - Shannon L Stott
- BioMEMS Resource Center, Center for Engineering in Medicine and Surgical Services, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA. and Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Ravi Kapur
- MicroMedicine, Inc., Waltham, MA 02451, USA
| | - Shyamala Maheswaran
- Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Daniel A Haber
- Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Bethesda, MD 20815, USA
| | - Mehmet Toner
- BioMEMS Resource Center, Center for Engineering in Medicine and Surgical Services, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA. and Shriners Hospitals for Children, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA
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23
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Advances in Computational Fluid Mechanics in Cellular Flow Manipulation: A Review. APPLIED SCIENCES-BASEL 2019. [DOI: 10.3390/app9194041] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Recently, remarkable developments have taken place, leading to significant improvements in microfluidic methods to capture subtle biological effects down to single cells. As microfluidic devices are getting sophisticated, design optimization through experimentations is becoming more challenging. As a result, numerical simulations have contributed to this trend by offering a better understanding of cellular microenvironments hydrodynamics and optimizing the functionality of the current/emerging designs. The need for new marketable designs with advantageous hydrodynamics invokes easier access to efficient as well as time-conservative numerical simulations to provide screening over cellular microenvironments, and to emulate physiological conditions with high accuracy. Therefore, an excerpt overview on how each numerical methodology and associated handling software works, and how they differ in handling underlying hydrodynamic of lab-on-chip microfluidic is crucial. These numerical means rely on molecular and continuum levels of numerical simulations. The current review aims to serve as a guideline for researchers in this area by presenting a comprehensive characterization of various relevant simulation techniques.
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24
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Raoufi MA, Mashhadian A, Niazmand H, Asadnia M, Razmjou A, Warkiani ME. Experimental and numerical study of elasto-inertial focusing in straight channels. BIOMICROFLUIDICS 2019; 13:034103. [PMID: 31123535 PMCID: PMC6509046 DOI: 10.1063/1.5093345] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2019] [Accepted: 04/22/2019] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
Elasto-inertial microfluidics has drawn significant attention in recent years due to its enhanced capabilities compared to pure inertial systems in control of small microparticles. Previous investigations have focused mainly on the applications of elasto-inertial sorting, rather than studying its fundamentals. This is because of the complexity of simulation and analysis, due to the presence of viscoelastic force. There have been some investigative efforts on the mechanisms of elasto-inertial focusing in straight channels; however, these studies were limited to simple rectangular channels and neglected the effects of geometry and flow rates on focusing positions. Herein, for the first time, we experimentally and numerically explore the effects of elasticity accompanying channel cross-sectional geometry and sample flow rates on the focusing phenomenon in elasto-inertial systems. The results reveal that increasing the aspect ratio weakens the elastic force more than inertial force, causing a transition from one focusing position to two. In addition, they show that increasing the angle of a channel corner causes the elastic force to push the particles more efficiently toward the center over a larger area of the channel cross section. Following on from this, we proposed a new complex straight channel which demonstrates a tighter focusing band compared to other channel geometries. Finally, we focused Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells (3-5 μm) in the complex channel to showcase its capability in focusing small-size particles. We believe that this research work improves the understanding of focusing mechanisms in viscoelastic solutions and provides useful insights into the design of elasto-inertial microfluidic devices.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Ali Mashhadian
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sharif University, Tehran, Iran
| | - Hamid Niazmand
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
| | - Mohsen Asadnia
- School of Engineering, Macquarie University, Sydney 2109, NSW, Australia
| | - Amir Razmjou
- UNESCO Center for Membrane Science and Technology, School of Chemical Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, NSW, Australia
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Dubay R, Lissandrello C, Swierk P, Moore N, Doty D, Fiering J. Scalable high-throughput acoustophoresis in arrayed plastic microchannels. BIOMICROFLUIDICS 2019; 13:034105. [PMID: 31123537 PMCID: PMC6509045 DOI: 10.1063/1.5096190] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2019] [Accepted: 04/22/2019] [Indexed: 05/11/2023]
Abstract
Microfluidic acoustophoresis is a label-free technique that isolates a purified product from a complex mixture of cells. This technique is well-studied but thus far has lacked the throughput and device manufacturability needed for many medical and industrial uses. Scale-up of acoustofluidic devices can be more challenging than in other microfluidic systems because the channel walls are integral to the resonant behavior and coupling to neighboring channels can inhibit performance. Additionally, the increased device area needed for parallel channels becomes less practical in the silicon or glass materials usually used for acoustofluidic devices. Here, we report an acoustic separator with 12 parallel channels made entirely from polystyrene that achieves blood cell separation at a flow rate greater than 1 ml/min. We discuss the design and optimization of the device and the electrical drive parameters and compare the separation performance using channels of two different designs. To demonstrate the utility of the device, we test its ability to purify lymphocytes from apheresis product, a process that is critical to new immunotherapies used to treat blood cancers. We process a leukapheresis sample with a volume greater than 100 ml in less than 2 h in a single pass without interruption, achieving greater than 90% purity of lymphocytes, without any prepurification steps. These advances suggest that acoustophoresis could in the future aid in cell therapy bioprocessing and that further scale-up is possible.
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Affiliation(s)
- R Dubay
- Draper, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
| | | | - P Swierk
- Draper, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
| | - N Moore
- Draper, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
| | - D Doty
- Draper, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
| | - J Fiering
- Draper, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
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Lee J, Mena SE, Burns MA. Micro-Particle Operations Using Asymmetric Traps. Sci Rep 2019; 9:1278. [PMID: 30718531 PMCID: PMC6362267 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-37454-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2018] [Accepted: 11/28/2018] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Micro-particle operations in many lab-on-a-chip devices require active-type techniques that are accompanied by complex fabrication and operation. The present study describes an alternative method using a passive microfluidic scheme that allows for simpler operation and, therefore, potentially less expensive devices. We present three practical micro-particle operations using our previously developed passive mechanical trap, the asymmetric trap, in a non-acoustic oscillatory flow field. First, we demonstrate size-based segregation of both binary and ternary micro-particle mixtures using size-dependent trap-particle interactions to induce different transport speeds for each particle type. The degree of segregation, yield, and purity of the binary segregations are 0.97 ± 0.02, 0.96 ± 0.06, and 0.95 ± 0.05, respectively. Next, we perform a solution exchange by displacing particles from one solution into another in a trap array. Lastly, we focus and split groups of micro-particles by exploiting the transport polarity of asymmetric traps. These operations can be implemented in any closed fluidic circuit containing asymmetric traps using non-acoustic oscillatory flow, and they open new opportunities to flexibly control micro-particles in integrated lab-on-a-chip platforms with minimal external equipment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jaesung Lee
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 48109, USA
| | - Sarah E Mena
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 48109, USA
| | - Mark A Burns
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 48109, USA. .,Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 48109, USA.
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Strachan BC, Xia H, Vörös E, Gifford SC, Shevkoplyas SS. Improved expansion of T cells in culture when isolated with an equipment-free, high-throughput, flow-through microfluidic module versus traditional density gradient centrifugation. Cytotherapy 2019; 21:234-245. [PMID: 30660490 DOI: 10.1016/j.jcyt.2018.12.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2018] [Revised: 12/23/2018] [Accepted: 12/26/2018] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The isolation of lymphocytes - and removal of platelets (PLTs) and red blood cells (RBCs) - from an initial blood sample prior to culture is a key enabling step for effective manufacture of cellular therapies. Unfortunately, currently available methods suffer from various drawbacks, including low cell recovery, need for complex equipment, potential loss of sterility and/or high materials/labor cost. METHODS A newly developed system for selectively concentrating leukocytes within precisely designed, but readily fabricated, microchannels was compared with conventional density gradient centrifugation with respect to: (i) ability to recover lymphocytes while removing PLTs/RBCs and (ii) growth rate and overall cell yield once expanded in culture. RESULTS In the optimal embodiment of the new microfluidic approach, recoveries of CD3+, CD19+ and CD56+ cells (85%, 89% and 97%, respectively) were significantly higher than for paired samples processed via gradient-based separation (51%, 53% and 40%). Although the removal of residual PLTs and RBCs was lower using the new approach, its enriched T-cell fraction nevertheless grew at a significantly higher rate than the gradient-isolated cells, with approximately twice the cumulative cell yield observed after 7 days of culture. DISCUSSION The standardization of each step of cellular therapy manufacturing would enable an accelerated translation of research breakthroughs into widely available clinical treatments. The high-throughput approach described in this study - requiring no ancillary pumping mechanism nor expensive disposables to operate - may be a viable candidate to standardize and streamline the initial isolation of lymphocytes for culture while also potentially shortening the time required for their expansion into a therapeutic dose.
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Affiliation(s)
- Briony C Strachan
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Hui Xia
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Eszter Vörös
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Sean C Gifford
- Halcyon Biomedical Incorporated, Friendswood, Texas, USA
| | - Sergey S Shevkoplyas
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, USA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Stoecklein
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, United States
| | - Dino Di Carlo
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, United States
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29
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Point-of-care sensors for the management of sepsis. Nat Biomed Eng 2018; 2:640-648. [PMID: 31015684 DOI: 10.1038/s41551-018-0288-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 72] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2018] [Accepted: 08/06/2018] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Point-of-care sensors that enable the fast collection of information relevant to a patient's health state can facilitate improved health access, reduce healthcare costs and improve the quality of healthcare delivery. In the diagnosis of sepsis - defined as a life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection, and the leading cause of in-patient death and of hospital readmission in the United States - predicting which infections will lead to life-threatening organ dysfunction and developing specific anti-sepsis treatments remain challenging because of the significant heterogeneity of the host response. Yet the use of point-of-care devices could reduce the time from the onset of a patient's infection to the administration of appropriate therapeutics. In this Perspective, we describe the current state of point-of-care sensors for the diagnosis and monitoring of sepsis, and outline opportunities in the use of these devices to dramatically improve patient care.
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Wong KHK, Edd JF, Tessier SN, Moyo WD, Mutlu BR, Bookstaver LD, Miller KL, Herrara S, Stott SL, Toner M. Anti-thrombotic strategies for microfluidic blood processing. LAB ON A CHIP 2018; 18:2146-2155. [PMID: 29938257 PMCID: PMC6082414 DOI: 10.1039/c8lc00035b] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/15/2023]
Abstract
The redundant mechanisms involved in blood coagulation are crucial for rapid hemostasis. Yet they also create challenges in blood processing in medical devices and lab-on-a-chip systems. In this work, we investigate the effects of both shear stress and hypothermic blood storage on thrombus formation in microfluidic processing. For fresh blood, thrombosis occurs only at high shear, and the glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitor tirofiban is highly effective in preventing thrombus formation. Blood storage generally activates platelets and primes them towards thrombosis via multiple mechanisms. Thrombus formation of stored blood at low shear can be adequately inhibited by glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors. At high shear, von Willebrand factor-mediated thrombosis contributes significantly and requires additional treatments with thiol-containing antioxidants-such as N acetylcysteine and reduced glutathione-that interfere with von Willebrand factor polymerization. We further demonstrate the effectiveness of these anti-thrombotic strategies in microfluidic devices made of cyclic olefin copolymer, a popular material used in the healthcare industry. This work identifies effective anti-thrombotic strategies that are applicable in a wide range of blood- and organ-on-a-chip applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Keith H. K. Wong
- BioMEMS Resource Center, Center for Engineering in Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
- Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
| | - Jon F. Edd
- BioMEMS Resource Center, Center for Engineering in Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
| | - Shannon N. Tessier
- BioMEMS Resource Center, Center for Engineering in Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
- Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
| | - Will D. Moyo
- BioMEMS Resource Center, Center for Engineering in Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
- Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
| | - Baris R. Mutlu
- BioMEMS Resource Center, Center for Engineering in Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
- Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
| | - Lauren D. Bookstaver
- BioMEMS Resource Center, Center for Engineering in Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
- Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
| | - Kathleen L. Miller
- BioMEMS Resource Center, Center for Engineering in Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
- Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
| | - Stefan Herrara
- BioMEMS Resource Center, Center for Engineering in Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
- Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
| | - Shannon L. Stott
- BioMEMS Resource Center, Center for Engineering in Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
- Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
- Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
- Corresponding author. (M.T.); (S.L.S.)
| | - Mehmet Toner
- BioMEMS Resource Center, Center for Engineering in Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
- Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
- Corresponding author. (M.T.); (S.L.S.)
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Abstract
Inertial microfluidics is a widely used technology which enables label-free manipulation of particles in microchannels. However, this technology has been limited to bioparticles larger than RBCs, due to the strong correlation between the inertial lift forces and the particle size. This paper presents a method to extend the capabilities of inertial microfluidics to smaller bioparticles, of which a plethora of clinically relevant types exist in the human body. Therefore, this method can be integrated with microfluidic devices for inertial manipulation of bioparticles that have defied all prior attempts, enabling a variety of applications in clinical diagnosis including cytometry of micron-scale bioparticles, isolation and characterization of pathogens and extracellular microvesicles, or phenotyping of cancer or stem cells at physiological shear stresses. Inertial microfluidics (i.e., migration and focusing of particles in finite Reynolds number microchannel flows) is a passive, precise, and high-throughput method for microparticle manipulation and sorting. Therefore, it has been utilized in numerous biomedical applications including phenotypic cell screening, blood fractionation, and rare-cell isolation. Nonetheless, the applications of this technology have been limited to larger bioparticles such as blood cells, circulating tumor cells, and stem cells, because smaller particles require drastically longer channels for inertial focusing, which increases the pressure requirement and the footprint of the device to the extent that the system becomes unfeasible. Inertial manipulation of smaller bioparticles such as fungi, bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens or blood components such as platelets and exosomes is of significant interest. Here, we show that using oscillatory microfluidics, inertial focusing in practically “infinite channels” can be achieved, allowing for focusing of micron-scale (i.e. hundreds of nanometers) particles. This method enables manipulation of particles at extremely low particle Reynolds number (Rep < 0.005) flows that are otherwise unattainable by steady-flow inertial microfluidics (which has been limited to Rep > ∼10−1). Using this technique, we demonstrated that synthetic particles as small as 500 nm and a submicron bacterium, Staphylococcus aureus, can be inertially focused. Furthermore, we characterized the physics of inertial microfluidics in this newly enabled particle size and Rep range using a Peclet-like dimensionless number (α). We experimentally observed that α >> 1 is required to overcome diffusion and be able to inertially manipulate particles.
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32
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Moore LR, Mizutani D, Tanaka T, Buck A, Yazer M, Zborowski M, Chalmers JJ. Continuous, intrinsic magnetic depletion of erythrocytes from whole blood with a quadrupole magnet and annular flow channel; pilot scale study. Biotechnol Bioeng 2018; 115:1521-1530. [PMID: 29476625 PMCID: PMC6311700 DOI: 10.1002/bit.26581] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2017] [Revised: 02/09/2018] [Accepted: 02/18/2018] [Indexed: 01/23/2023]
Abstract
The ability to separate RBCs from the other components of whole blood has a number of useful clinical and research applications ranging from removing RBCs from typical clinical blood draw, bone marrow transplants to transfusions of these RBCs to patients after significant blood loss. Viewed from a mechanistic/process perspective, there are three routine methodologies to remove RBCs: 1) RBCs lysis, 2) separation of the RBCs from the nucleated cells (i.e., stem cells) based on density differences typically facilitated through centrifugation or sedimentation agents, and 3) antibody based separation in which a targeted RBC is bound with an affinity ligand that facilitates its removal. More recently, several microfluidic based techniques have also been reported. In this report, we describe the performance of continuous RBC separation achieved by the deflection of intrinsically magnetic, deoxygenated RBCs as they flow through a magnetic energy gradient created by quadrupole magnet. This quadrupole magnetic, with aperture of 9.65 mm, has a maximum field of B0 = 1.36 T at the pole tips and a constant field gradient of B0 /r0 = 286 T/m. The annular flow channel, contained within this quadrupole magnet, is 203 mm long, has an inner radius of 3.98 mm, and an inner, outer radius of 4.36 mm, which corresponds to an annulus radius of 380 micrometer. At the entrance and exit to this annular channel, a manifold was designed which allows a cell suspension and sheath fluid to be injected, and a RBC enriched exit flow (containing the magnetically deflected RBCs) and a RBC depleted exit flow to be collected. Guided by theoretical models previously published, a limited number of operating parameters; total flow rate, flow rate ratios of flows in and flow out, and ratios of RBC to polystyrene control beads was tested. The overall performance of this system is consistent with our previously presented, theoretical models and our intuition. As expected, the normalized recovery of RBCs in the RBC exit fraction ranged from approximately 95% down to 60%, as the total flow rate through the system increased from 0.1 to 0.6 ml/min. At the cell concentrations studied, this corresponds to a flow rate of 1.5 × 106 -9 × 106 cells/min. While the throughput of these pilot scale studies are slow for practical applications, the general agreement with theory, and the small cross-sectional area in which the actual separation is achieved, 77 mm2 (annulus radius times the length), and corresponding volume of approximately 2 mls, suggests the potential to scale-up a system for practical applications exists and is actively being pursued.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lee R Moore
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio
| | - Daichi Mizutani
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio
- Department of Chemistry, Mie University, Japan
| | - Tomoya Tanaka
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio
- Department of Chemistry, Mie University, Japan
| | - Amy Buck
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio
| | - Mark Yazer
- Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh and The Institute for Transfusion Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
| | - Maciej Zborowski
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio
| | - Jeffrey J Chalmers
- William G. Lowrie Department of Chemica, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
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