A novel optoelectrofulidic system for cells/particles manipulation and sorting

Abstract

A novel optoelectrofulidic system integrated optical image concentration and alignment system, dielectrophoresis phenomenon, microfluidic and friendly real-time control interface is first reported in this article. A new application of photoconductive material oxotitanium phthalocyanine (TiOPc) for microparticle applying has been first described and demonstrated by our research group. Basis on the special character of the photoconductive material, a TiOPc-based optoelectronic tweezers (Ti-OET) is utilized for single and massive cells/particles manipulation. The objects wanted to be manipulated are defined with different behaviors (e.g., press, release, drag and move) using Flash (R) software when the cursor acts on them. It also reveals the application for biological application to form the cells trapping with three sorts of cells, HMEC-1, HepG2 and HEK293t. Another application of our optoelectrofulidic system is to fabricate a TiOPc-based flow cytometry chip which can be used for sorting the 15 mu m diameter particles with 105 mu m/s velocity. When the 10Vp. p. voltage and 45 kHz AC frequency apply on the top and button ITO electrode, the illuminated light pattern will become a spatially virtual switch inside the microchannel. The dielectrophoresis force between top ITO glass and button photoconductive layer controlled by the friendly interface will concentrate the cells/particles as a straight line and individually direct each one in different paths. In summary, we have established an optoelectronfulidic-based chip and spatially virtual switch system which are applied for cell pattern and particles sorting. In the future, this easy manipulation approach can place the full power of optoelectronfulidic chip into the biological operators' hands.