INTEGRATED FERROFLUIDIC MICROCHIP FOR CELL MANIPULATION AND ENRICHMENT

描述（由申请人提供）：在本提案中，我们的目标是开发一种完全集成的铁磁流体微芯片，通过结合微流体和动态可重构的金属丝网线圈，以无标签的方式对生物相容性铁磁流体中的细胞进行磁性操纵和富集。本研究的目标是：(1)开发铁磁流体微芯片作为生物医学研究的通用细胞操作平台；(2)开发一种快速低成本的前端分离方法来富集宫颈异常细胞，以增加可重复性，缩短筛选时间，提高筛选准确性。我们计划通过追求三个具体目标来实现这些目标。(1)集成铁磁流体细胞操作富集芯片的研制。我们将建模，设计，制造和测试一种新颖的多功能金属丝网线圈，以产生可重构和动态的磁场模式。将设计一个PDMS微通道，并将其与丝网线圈集成以形成原型芯片。(2)证明该芯片在细胞操作方面的有效性。我们将开发生物相容性铁磁流体用于活细胞实验。我们将利用细胞的大小，形状和弹性作为潜在的操作特征。细胞操作将使用活细胞进行。(3)芯片在宫颈癌细胞富集中的应用。该芯片可以应用于细胞生物学领域，在这些领域中，对细胞行为的理解需要分离和操纵某些细胞亚群。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In this proposal, we aim to develop a fully integrated ferrofluidic microchip to magnetically manipulate and enrich cells inside bio-compatible ferrofluids in a label-free manner by combining microfluidics and dynamically-reconfigurable wire-mesh coils. Goals of this research are (1) to develop the ferrofluidic microchip as a general cell manipulation platform for biomedical research, and (2) to develop a fast and low-cost front-end separation method to enrich cervical abnormal cells for increased reproducibility, reduced screening time, and improved screening accuracy. We plan to achieve these goals through pursuing three specific aims. (1) Development of integrated ferrofluidic cell manipulation and enrichment microchip. We will model, design, fabricate and test a novel and versatile wire-mesh coil to produce reconfigurable and dynamic magnetic field patterns. A PDMS microchannels will be designed and integrated with the wire-mesh coil to form the prototype chip. (2) Demonstration of the chip's effectiveness in cell manipulation. We will develop bio-compatible ferrofluids for live cell experiments. We will exploit size, shape and elasticity of cells as potenial manipulation characteristics. Cell manipulation will be conducted with live cells. (3) Application of chip in cervical cancer cell enrichment. The chip can be applied in areas in cell biology where understanding of cell behavior requires isolation and manipulation of certain cell subpopulations. This is a highly interdisciplinary research project because it deals with the themes of colloidal chemistry, fluid dynamics, magnetism, electronics, modeling and simulation, microfabrication, and cancer biology. An interdisciplinary team in both engineering sciences (University of Georgia and University of Houston) and cancer biology (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) is formed for this project. The team includes 4 university faculty, one CDC cervical cancer expert, one CDC postdoctoral scholar, and two graduate students. The duration of the proposed project period is 3 years.