Multilevel (3D) microfluidic technology for an innovative magnetic cell separation and couting platform

Abstract

International audienceCurrently, the technique for the quantitative detection of cells is flow cytometry. This technique has the advantage of being sensitive and reliable but is expensive, time consuming and not suited to both routine screening and point‐of‐care diagnostics. Miniaturized cell separation devices offer many advantages such as the use of small volumes, portability and low cost.We propose a new concept of device which, by combining 3D fluid engineering and localized magnetic actuation, enables the full integration of cell tagging, magnetic separation and cell counting in a single device. The labs on chip are manufactured by laminating commercially available photosensitive dry film that fits microfluidic requirements and gives the possibility to build easily 3D microfluidic systems.We show we can tag efficiently THP1 monocytes and subsequently sort them through magnetic trapping on integrated micro-coils. The separation efficiency is studied at different flow rates. Cell counting capacity, evaluated by using non‐ faradic impedance spectroscopy revealed that the cell trapping is selective, depending on the specific antibody grafted and quantitative with the range of detection being 1000 to 30000 infected cells. This range of detection is consistent with the targeted application