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Shen L, Tian Z, Zhang J, Zhu H, Yang K, Li T, Rich J, Upreti N, Hao N, Pei Z, Jin G, Yang S, Liang Y, Chaohui W, Huang TJ. Acousto-dielectric tweezers for size-insensitive manipulation and biophysical characterization of single cells. Biosens Bioelectron 2023; 224:115061. [PMID: 36634509 DOI: 10.1016/j.bios.2023.115061] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2022] [Revised: 10/03/2022] [Accepted: 01/03/2023] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
The intrinsic biophysical properties of cells, such as mechanical, acoustic, and electrical properties, are valuable indicators of a cell's function and state. However, traditional single-cell biophysical characterization methods are hindered by limited measurable properties, time-consuming procedures, and complex system setups. This study presents acousto-dielectric tweezers that leverage the balance between controllable acoustophoretic and dielectrophoretic forces applied on cells through surface acoustic waves and alternating current electric fields, respectively. Particularly, the balanced acoustophoretic and dielectrophoretic forces can trap cells at equilibrium positions independent of the cell size to differentiate between various cell-intrinsic mechanical, acoustic, and electrical properties. Experimental results show our mechanism has the potential for applications in single-cell analysis, size-insensitive cell separation, and cell phenotyping, which are all primarily based on cells' intrinsic biophysical properties. Our results also show the measured equilibrium position of a cell can inversely determine multiple biophysical properties, including membrane capacitance, cytoplasm conductivity, and acoustic contrast factor. With these features, our acousto-dielectric tweezing mechanism is a valuable addition to the resources available for biophysical property-based biological and medical research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liang Shen
- Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA; State Key Laboratory of Manufacturing Systems Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710049, China
| | - Zhenhua Tian
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA.
| | - Jinxin Zhang
- Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA
| | - Haodong Zhu
- Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA
| | - Kaichun Yang
- Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA
| | - Teng Li
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA
| | - Joseph Rich
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA
| | - Neil Upreti
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA
| | - Nanjing Hao
- Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA
| | - Zhichao Pei
- Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA
| | - Geonsoo Jin
- Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA
| | - Shujie Yang
- Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA
| | - Yaosi Liang
- Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA
| | - Wang Chaohui
- State Key Laboratory of Manufacturing Systems Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710049, China.
| | - Tony Jun Huang
- Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA.
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