Acoustic separation of circulating tumor cells

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are important targets for cancer biology studies. To further elucidate the role of CTCs in cancer metastasis and prognosis, effective methods for isolating extremely rare tumor cells from peripheral blood must be developed. Acoustic-based methods, which are known to preserve the integrity, functionality, and viability of biological cells using label-free and contact-free sorting, have thus far not been successfully developed to isolate rare CTCs using clinical samples from cancer patients owing to technical constraints, insufficient throughput, and lack of long-term device stability. In this work, we demonstrate the development of an acoustic-based microfluidic device that is…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Award: DMR-0820404
• NI
  National Institutes of Health

  Awards: 1 R01 GM112048-01A1, U01HL114476, 1R33EB019785-01