Home › Microbiology › Label-free Isolation and Enrichment of Cells Through Contactless Dielectrophoresis
Microbiology JoVE (Open Access) Citable · DOI

Label-free Isolation and Enrichment of Cells Through Contactless Dielectrophoresis

DOI: 10.3791/50634-v
What you'll learn
  • ✓ Fabricate a contactless dielectrophoresis microfluidic device with fluidic electrodes
  • ✓ Characterize cell dielectric properties by measuring crossover frequency
  • ✓ Sort and enrich cell populations based on intrinsic dielectric signatures
Protocol

Contactless dielectrophoresis (cDEP) achieves sorting and enrichment of particles via their intrinsic dielectric properties. Fluidic electrode channels replace metallic electrodes traditional to DEP, suiting cDEP to non-damaging sterile characterization and sorting of biological particles. We demonstrate how to prepare a cDEP microdevice and conduct cell characterization and sorting experiments.

Difficulty
advanced
Total time
~4–6 hours (device fabrication + cell preparation + characterization experiments)
Biosafety
BSL-1

Steps

1
Fabricate contactless dielectrophoresis microfluidic device

Prepare a prototype cDEP microdevice with fluidic electrode channels designed to replace traditional metallic electrodes. This step enables sterile, non-damaging cell manipulation.

▶ 01:54
2
Prepare cell suspension in dielectrophoresis buffer

Resuspend cells in appropriate DEP buffer to ensure proper dielectric properties and conductivity for sorting experiments.

▶ 03:12
3
Load cell suspension into cDEP microfluidic chip

Introduce the prepared cell suspension into the cDEP device and establish flow conditions for subsequent characterization and sorting.

▶ 03:57
4
Characterize cell crossover frequency using cDEP

Measure the crossover frequency at which cells transition between positive and negative dielectrophoretic responses, revealing intrinsic dielectric properties.

▶ 06:04
5
Perform cell sorting or enrichment by frequency modulation

Vary applied electric field frequencies to selectively isolate or enrich target cell populations based on their dielectric signatures.

▶ 07:49
6
Analyze sorted cell responses and enrichment outcomes

Evaluate the results of dielectrophoretic sorting to confirm separation efficiency and validate cell population composition.

▶ 08:43
💬 Comments coming soon