Motile cells as probes for characterizing acoustofluidic devices
Motile cells as probes for characterizing acoustofluidic devices
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DOI：
10.1039/d0lc01025a
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发表时间：
2021-02-07
期刊：
影响因子：
6.1
通讯作者：
Meacham, J. Mark
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Kim, Minji;Bayly, Philip V.;Meacham, J. Mark
声学微流体技术已经成为医学和生物学中粒子操纵的通用解决方案。然而，目前的技术主要局限于专门的研究实验室。将声流控技术从研究转化为临床和工业环境需要提高不同平台的一致性和可重复性。性能比较将需要直接的实验评估工具，目前还没有。我们介绍了一种方法，利用游泳的微生物的能力，以响应其环境的变化，实时表征声流体装置。单细胞的衣藻，衣原体reinhardtii，被用来作为一个积极的探针，以可视化的微流体通道和腔室内不断变化的声压场。与更熟悉的哺乳动物细胞相比，C. Reinhardtii易于制备和保持，并且显示出更接近于校准颗粒的相对均匀的尺寸分布;然而，与被动颗粒不同，这些运动细胞自然地填充复杂的腔室几何形状，并且当声场改变或关闭时重新分布。这样，C. Reinhardtii池提供了比常规聚合物或玻璃校准珠更大的灵活性，用于原位确定装置操作特性。为了说明该技术，游泳细胞的变化的空间密度和分布与声势相关，以在指定的频率范围内自动定位设备共振。连续图像的相关系数中的峰值不仅识别各种几何形状的共振频率，而且峰值形状可以与共振的相对强度相关。还示出了声场强度随电压幅度增加的定性映射。因此，我们证明了动态响应C。ReinhardII能够实时测量和连续监控声流体装置性能。
Acoustic microfluidics has emerged as a versatile solution for particle manipulation in medicine and biology. However, current technologies are largely confined to specialized research laboratories. The translation of acoustofluidics from research to clinical and industrial settings requires improved consistency and repeatability across different platforms. Performance comparisons will require straightforward experimental assessment tools that are not yet available. We introduce a method for characterizing acoustofluidic devices in real-time by exploiting the capacity of swimming microorganisms to respond to changes in their environment. The unicellular alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, is used as an active probe to visualize the evolving acoustic pressure field within microfluidic channels and chambers. In contrast to more familiar mammalian cells, C. reinhardtii are simple to prepare and maintain, and exhibit a relatively uniform size distribution that more closely resembles calibration particles; however, unlike passive particles, these motile cells naturally fill complex chamber geometries and redistribute when the acoustic field changes or is turned off. In this way, C. reinhardtii cells offer greater flexibility than conventional polymer or glass calibration beads for in situ determination of device operating characteristics. To illustrate the technique, the varying spatial density and distribution of swimming cells are correlated to the acoustic potential to automatically locate device resonances within a specified frequency range. Peaks in the correlation coefficient of successive images not only identify the resonant frequencies for various geometries, but the peak shape can be related to the relative strength of the resonances. Qualitative mapping of the acoustic field strength with increasing voltage amplitude is also shown. Thus, we demonstrate that dynamically responsive C. reinhardtii enable real-time measurement and continuous monitoring of acoustofluidic device performance.