MEMS applications for single cell manipulation and assessment

拟议研究计划的主要目标是推进知识，使单细胞分析完全能够用于检测特定的医疗状况，个性化医疗和治疗不确定性。这项研究是由好奇心和生物工程研究的最新趋势驱动的。在这项研究中考虑了更成熟的技术，因为很可能在该计划的这五年部分之后将确定新的研究方向。该研究是针对工程方面的研究，重点是细胞分离和分化，细胞操作和评估。所提出的方案的独特性是对所处理的三个问题的统一方法。将研究质量守恒和能量需求。短期的调查将集中在使用压力驱动流，介电泳和微流体通道的3D配置从流体中分离确定的颗粒。研究还集中在两相流和改善所需的电场和电极的配置之间的相关性。此外，短程研究的重点是通过细胞的机械、电学或光学表征提供的线索进行细胞评估。这项研究将主要提供工程工具，进行这样的研究，而生物物理相关性将被认为是在长期的研究计划。该研究是高度多学科的，因为所解决的基本方面是在工程。

The main objective of the proposed research program is to advance the knowledge that will fully enable single cell analysis for detection of specific medical condition, personalized medicine and theragnostics. The research is driven by curiosity and by the recent trends in bio-engineering research. More established technologies are considered in this research as it is quite likely that new directions of research will be identified following this five years part of the program. The research is directed the engineering aspect of the research and is focusing on cell separation and differentiation, cell manipulation and assessment. The uniqueness of the proposed program is the unitary approach on the three problems that is dealt with. The mass conservation and the energy requirements will be investigated. The short range of the investigation will focus on separation of determined particles from fluid using pressure driven flow, dielectrophoresis and 3D configurations of micro-fluidic channels. The research is also focusing on the two phase flow and improvement of the correlation between a desired electric field and the configuration of the electrodes. Further, the short range research is focusing on cell assessment through clues provided by mechanical, electrical or optical characterization of cells. This research will mainly provide the engineering tools to carry out such research while the bio-physical correlation will be considered in the long range of the research program. The research is highly multidisciplinary as the fundamental aspects that are tackled are in engineering.