TOWARDS THE DEVELOPMENT OF A MICROFLUIDIC DEVICE FOR THE SEPARATION AND ISOLATION OF CIRCULATING TUMOR CELLS FROM WHOLE BLOOD USING ACOUSTOPHORESIS

摘要

We present progress towards the development of a microfluidic device with a novel design that assists in the separation and isolation of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) using acoustophoresis. A unique design is being developed to maximize the 'filtering' capability of the microfluidic device to eliminate the need to lyse red blood cells prior to isolation of CTCs. COMSOL modeling has allowed for the determination of efficient flow designs and the understanding of flow patterns in different filter channel arrays. The separation of various sized fluorescently-tagged beads in buffer, as well as the focusing of beads from whole blood was demonstrated.