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High Throughput Separation of Cells Achieved Through the Particle Characteristic Dielectrophoretic Response and Further Focusing

Previous devices to separate cells by the characteristic force they experience due to dielectrophoresis, which depends on the size and electric properties of the particle, were limited by the flow rates and particle concentrations separation could be achieved at. To unlock the potential of Lab-on-a-chip technology to create flexible, efficient and multifunction devices at low cost it is necessary to increase the rates at which separations can be performed. Here we present a device capable of high throughput continuous separation of cells from microparticles and demonstrate separation at 7 uL/min in a microchannel with a high density of cells and microparticles in the sample of 10^8-10^9 cells/mL. This device uses the characteristic response of the particles due to dielectrophoresis to provide the initial separation before crucially focusing the particles into completely separate particle streams allowing the operation at high flow rates and particle concentrations. The device is demonstrated with the separation of polystyrene (PS) beads 8 microns, 25 microns and human dermal microvascular endothelial cell line (HMEC-1 cells) and human liver cell line (HepG2 cells) suspended in a DEP buffer solution. We show that it is possible to achieve not only high flow rate separation but also high sample purity with, after separation and focusing, one output containing 100% cells.