A faster way to catch cells
Separating complex mixtures of cells, such as those found in a blood sample, can offer valuable information for diagnosing and treating disease. However, it may be necessary to search through billions of other cells to collect rare cells such as tumor cells, stem cells or fetal cells. “You’re basically looking for a needle in a haystack,” says Sukant Mittal, a graduate student in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST). Mittal and his colleagues at MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have now demonstrated a new microfluidic device that can isolate target cells much faster than existing devices. Such technology could be used in applications such as point-of-care diagnostics and personalized medicine.The researchers describe their results in the Feb. 21 issue of Biophysical Journal. Other authors of the paper are Ian Wong, a postdoc at MGH and Harvard Medical School (HMS), MIT chemical engineering professor William Deen, and...