Simon Gergely, Busch Caroline, Andrade Marco A B, Reboud Julien, Cooper Jonathan M, Desmulliez Marc P Y, Riehle Mathis O, Bernassau Anne L
School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, United Kingdom.
Institute of Molecular Cell and Systems Biology, Centre for Cell Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, United Kingdom.
Biomicrofluidics. 2021 Jan 27;15(1):014105. doi: 10.1063/5.0040181. eCollection 2021 Jan.
Separation and sorting of biological entities (viruses, bacteria, and cells) is a critical step in any microfluidic lab-on-a-chip device. Acoustofluidics platforms have demonstrated their ability to use physical characteristics of cells to perform label-free separation. Bandpass-type sorting methods of medium-sized entities from a mixture have been presented using acoustic techniques; however, they require multiple transducers, lack support for various target populations, can be sensitive to flow variations, or have not been verified for continuous flow sorting of biological cells. To our knowledge, this paper presents the first acoustic bandpass method that overcomes all these limitations and presents an inherently reconfigurable technique with a single transducer pair for stable continuous flow sorting of blood cells. The sorting method is first demonstrated for polystyrene particles of sizes 6, 10, and 14.5 m in diameter with measured purity and efficiency coefficients above 75 ± 6% and 85 ± 9%, respectively. The sorting strategy was further validated in the separation of red blood cells from white blood cells and 1 m polystyrene particles with 78 ± 8% efficiency and 74 ± 6% purity, respectively, at a flow rate of at least 1 l/min, enabling to process finger prick blood samples within minutes.
生物实体（病毒、细菌和细胞）的分离和分选是任何微流控芯片实验室设备中的关键步骤。声流体平台已证明其能够利用细胞的物理特性进行无标记分离。已经提出了使用声学技术从混合物中对中等大小实体进行带通型分选的方法；然而，它们需要多个换能器，缺乏对各种目标群体的支持，可能对流量变化敏感，或者尚未经过生物细胞连续流分选的验证。据我们所知，本文提出了第一种克服所有这些限制的声学带通方法，并提出了一种本质上可重构的技术，该技术使用单个换能器对进行血细胞的稳定连续流分选。首先对直径为6、10和14.5微米的聚苯乙烯颗粒进行了分选方法演示，测得的纯度和效率系数分别高于75±6%和85±9%。该分选策略在从白细胞中分离红细胞和1微米聚苯乙烯颗粒的过程中得到了进一步验证，在至少1升/分钟的流速下，效率分别为78±8%，纯度为74±6%，能够在几分钟内处理手指刺破的血样。
