Optofluidic device for label-free cell classification from whole blood.

A unique optofluidic lab-on-a-chip device that can detect optically encoded forward scattering signals is demonstrated. With a unique design of a spatial mask that patterns the intensity distribution of the illuminating light, the position and velocity of each travelling cell in the flow can be measured with submicrometer resolution, which enables the generation of a cell distribution plot over the cross section of the channel. The distribution of cells is highly sensitive to its size and stiffness, both being important biomarkers for cell classification without cell labelling. The optical-coding technique offers an easy route to classify cells based on their size and stiffness. Because the stiffness and size of neutrophils are distinct from other types of white blood cells, the number of neutrophils can be detected from other white blood cells and red blood cells. Above all, the enumeration of neutrophil concentration can be obtained from only 5 μL of human blood with a simple blood preparation process saving the usual steps of anticoagulation, centrifugation, antibody labelling, or filtering. The optofluidic system is compact, inexpensive, and simple to fabricate and operate. The system uses a commodity laser diode and a Si PIN photoreceiver and digital signal processing to extract vital information about cells and suppress the noise from the encoded optical scattering signals. The optofluidic device holds promise to be a point-of-care and home care device to measure neutrophil concentration, which is the key indicator of the immune functions for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.