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Centrifugo-magnetophoretic particle separation

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Abstract

There has been a recent surge of research output on magnetophoretic lab-on-a-chip systems due to their prospective use in a range of applications in the life sciences and clinical diagnostics. Manifold applications for batch-mode or continuous-flow magnetophoretic separations of cells, proteins, and nucleic acids are found in bioanalytics, cell biology, and clinical diagnostics. To ensure stable hydrodynamic conditions and thus reproducible separation, state-of-the-art magnetophoretic lab-on-a-chip systems have been based on pressure-driven flow (Gijs in Microfluid Nanofluid 1:22–40, 2004; Pamme and Manz in Anal Chem 76:7250–7256, 2004; Pamme in Lab Chip 7:1644–1659, 2007; Karle et al. in Lab Chip 10:3284–3290, 2010), which involves rather bulky and costly instrumentation. In a flow-based system, suspended particles are following the liquid phase as a result of the Stokes drag, thus being fully exposed to divergent flow lines around obstacles and pump-induced pressure fluctuations. To eventually achieve more stable hydrodynamic conditions, improved control of magnetic particles, a more compact instrumentation footprint, and integration of high-performance upstream sample preparation, this work introduces a novel two-dimensional particle separation principle by combining magnetic deflection with centrifugal sedimentation in a stopped-flow mode (i.e., mere particle sedimentation). The experimental parameters governing our centrifugo-magnetophoretic system are the strength and orientation of the co-rotating magnetic field, the rotationally induced centrifugal field, and the size-dependent Stokes drag of the various particles with respect to the (residual) liquid phase. In this work, the following set of basic functional modes is demonstrated as proof-of-concept: separation of magnetic from non-magnetic particles, routing of magnetic particles based on control of the spin speed, and size separation of various magnetic particles. Finally, a biomimetic application involving the separation of particles representing healthy cells from a very small concentration of magnetic particles of a similar size, mass and magnetization as a immuno-magnetically tagged target cell, for instance mimicking a circulating tumor cell.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Science Foundation of Ireland under Grant No. 10/CE/B1821.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biomedical Diagnostics Institute, National Centre for Sensor Research, School of Physical Sciences, Dublin City University, Dublin 9, Ireland

    Daniel Kirby, Jonathan Siegrist, Gregor Kijanka, Laëtitia Zavattoni, Robert Burger & Jens Ducrée

  2. Department of Pathology, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

    Orla Sheils & John O’Leary

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  1. Daniel Kirby
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  2. Jonathan Siegrist
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  3. Gregor Kijanka
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  4. Laëtitia Zavattoni
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  5. Orla Sheils
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  6. John O’Leary
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  7. Robert Burger
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  8. Jens Ducrée
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Correspondence to Daniel Kirby.

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Kirby, D., Siegrist, J., Kijanka, G. et al. Centrifugo-magnetophoretic particle separation. Microfluid Nanofluid 13, 899–908 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-012-1007-6

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