Cellular Transport Dispersion in Microfluidic Channels

细胞的力学性质在医学和生物学的许多领域都很重要。例如，疟疾是由一种微小的寄生虫引起的，这种寄生虫在人类红细胞内度过其生命周期的一部分。感染这种寄生虫的红细胞的可变形性或硬度与寄生虫的生长及其对药物的反应有关。因此，细胞变形能力的表征可用于测量寄生虫的生长和药物活性。同样，癌细胞的可变形性可能表明它们侵入健康组织的能力，因此可用于评估疾病的侵袭性，使临床医生能够选择最佳治疗方法。******在这个提议中，我们的目标是开发一种新的工具来测量各种类型的人类细胞的可变形性，包括红细胞、白细胞和癌细胞。这些工具利用为制造硅微芯片而开发的技术来创建单个细胞长度的结构。将这种能力与其他制造方法和现代仪器相结合，将使我们能够开发更容易，更准确地测量细胞变形能力的技术，以及并行执行大量此类研究。******这项提议的预期结果是新的工具和原则，可以被生物医学科学家用来建立细胞可变形性和各种疾病的特性之间的关系。然后，这些工具将为广泛领域的标准生物测试奠定基础，包括优化血液储存条件；检测和治疗传染病，如疟疾；管理遗传疾病，如镰状细胞病和地中海贫血；以及癌症疾病和药物反应的评估。

The mechanical properties of cells are important in a wide range of areas in medicine and biology. For example, malaria is caused by a microscopic parasite that spends part of its lifecycle inside human red blood cells. The deformability, or stiffness, of red blood cells infected with this parasite is related to the growth of the parasite and its response to drugs. Therefore, characterization of cellular deformability could be used to measure parasite growth and drug activity. Similarly, the deformability of cancer cells may indicate their ability to invade healthy tissue, and therefore may be used to assess the aggressiveness of the disease and enable clinicians to select optimal treatment.******In this proposal, we aim to develop a new class of tools for measuring the deformability of various types of human cells including red blood cells, white blood cells, and cancer cells. These tools leverage technologies developed for the fabrication of silicon microchips to create structures at the length scale of individual cells. Combining this capability with other manufacturing methods and modern instrumentation will enable us to develop technologies to more easily and more accurately measure cellular deformability, as well as to perform large numbers of such studies in parallel.******The anticipated outcomes of this proposal are new tools and principles that could be used by biomedical scientists to establish the relationship between cellular deformability and the properties of various diseases. These tools will then form the foundation for standard biological tests in a wide range of areas including optimization of conditions for blood storage; detection and treatment of infectious diseases, such as malaria; management of hereditary diseases, such as sickle cell and thalassemia; and evaluation of cancer disease and drug response.