The ability to analyze the properties of individual cells is vital to vast areas of life science applications, from diagnosing disease and developing better therapies to characterizing pathogenic bacteria and developing cells for health applications. bioproduction. However, the accurate analysis of single cells is a challenge, especially when it comes to the biophysical properties of a cell, due to the large variations in properties between cells, even within the same cell population, as well as the presence of rare cell types within a larger population.
To address this need, Dr. Arum Han, Texas Instruments Professor II in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University, along with his graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, have developed a new technology capable of accurately analyzing cell properties through the use of a single-cell electrorotation microfluidic device, which uses an electric field to probe cell properties.
The technology works by using an electric field to first capture a single cell in a microfluidic device, then applying a rotating electric field to spin the trapped single cell, then measuring the spin rate. By knowing the parameters of the input electric field and analyzing the rotational speed, the precise analysis of the dielectric properties of a single cell becomes possible.
“By knowing how much force has been applied and how fast the cell is spinning, you can extract many basic biophysical properties of cells,” Han said.
There have been previous efforts to achieve this, but this technology is the most accurate for measuring these properties due to its ability to apply a high frequency electric field (up to 100 megahertz) and its use of a design eight pairs of electrodes to simultaneously trap a single cell and apply rotational force to the trapped cell.
The findings of the research team are presented in Biomedical microdevices.
This technology has been fully developed and applied to several different cell analysis applications. After successfully demonstrating that the analysis can be performed accurately on one cell at a time, Yuwen Li, a graduate student in Han’s lab and lead author of the work, is now leading efforts to further develop the technology so that it can be executed at a much higher speed and against multiple cells simultaneously.
Development of a 3D particle model for single particles in battery electrodes
Yuwen Li et al, Measuring Dielectric Properties of Cells at Single-Cell Resolution Using Electrorotation, Biomedical microdevices (2022). DOI: 10.1007/s10544-022-00621-3
Provided by Texas A&M University College of Engineering
Quote: New technology developed for single cell analysis (2022, October 25) retrieved October 25, 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-10-technology-single-cell-analysis.html
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